How Do Snakes Move in Water?

Video Transcript

"How do snakes swim? Well, snakes swim in much the same way that they move on land, by using a modified form of horizontal undulatory progression, also known as lateral progression. Basically, they throw parts of their coils to the side, to move forward, and by doing that, create a wave like effect in the water, and propel themselves forward. While doing this, they typically also flatten themselves out, and concave their inner bellies, making the water move easier against them, and creating more propulsion forward. In fact, there are some sea snakes, that are so well designed for this, that watching them on land, is akin to watching a beached whale try to move. It is quite pathetic. Now of course, the snakes that love the water, almost as much as the sea snakes, are going to be the very large boas, the green anacondas, the rock pythons, the snakes that max out in your twenty foot area. They love that water, because that gives them a large camouflage area, plus it negates much of their weight factor, making them faster and more maneuverable, so it gives them that extra edge for catching their prey, and as you'll notice in the footage here also, that the colubrids, the smaller snakes like, the king snakes, the milk snakes, the corn snakes, rat snakes, tend to move much, much faster in the water, than do the larger boas, like the red tail boa we have here."