A Snake That Doesn't Slither? Viral Video Baffles Viewers

Birds fly, horses gallop and snakes slither to go from one place to another. While slithering is indeed the most common way that snakes move around, did you know that these reptiles have other methods of locomotion too? A video that is going viral online has captured one such method and left many viewers surprised. 

The clip, which was shared on Reddit, shows a snake on a road. When it begins to move, it doesn't slither like snakes usually do. Instead, it is seen moving forward much like a caterpillar would. Take a look at the "non slithering" snake below:

A non slithering snake from r/snakes

Since being shared online, the video of the snake has collected over 1,500 comments and more than 55,000 'upvotes' on Reddit. 

"Never seen that before. Science experiment?" asked one person in the comments section. 

"Okay this is making me very uncomfortable," another wrote, while a third added, "It must have been raised by caterpillars."

Many Reddit users identified the snake as a puff adder and its movement as something called "rectilinear locomotion". 

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, rectilinear motion is when the snake's body "moves in a straight line, using a flow of muscle contractions along the sides that looks like a caterpillar in motion." This type of movement is most common in large heavy-bodied snakes like boas and some vipers. 

What do you think of the video? Let us know using the comments section.