Cartwheeling Snakes Escape Danger: Dwarf reeds roll at 12 feet per second; study reveals unusual locomotion

Scientists have captured rare footage of tiny Southeast Asian snakes performing rapid cartwheels to escape danger, revealing an unusual form of movement that allows the reptiles to travel at speeds of up to 12 feet per second. The findings, published in Current Biology on October 19, 2026, were reported by Science News, Live Science and Japan’s Toho University, whose researchers investigated how the snakes coordinate their bodies during the remarkable manoeuvre. The behaviour, known as active cartwheeling, has been documented in dwarf reed snakes belonging to the genus Pseudorabdion. Unlike conventional snake movement, which relies on lateral undulation along the ground, this escape technique involves the animal briefly lifting parts of its body into the air and rolling forward in a series of rapid rotations. The research offers a closer look at how these small, secretive reptiles manage the unusual feat while keeping their heads relatively stable and maintaining control over their direction of travel.How do the snakes perform their cartwheels?Researchers from Japan and Malaysia studied 13 dwarf reed snakes from three Pseudorabdion species, alongside six related reed snakes from th...