How do snakes move?

With up to 400 vertebrae, snakes have remarkable flexibility and some can travel at up to 10 kph. There are four different ways in which they may move.

The usual method is an Undulating movement in which the snake uses irregularities on the ground to get leverage and push it's body against. Done at a number of points along the body at the same time, this creates a constant undulating flow. Brown snakes and whip-snakes move like this.

Then there is the slow Straight-line way of moving used by large and bulky snakes such as Pythons. The head and fore-body are stretched straight forward. The belly scales then gain a hold and the snake advances by contacting its body muscles and dragging the rest of itself forward.

In the Concertina method sometimes adopted by Brown-tree-snakes, the snake forms a series of body loops and then pushes its head and fore-body forward. Having obtained a purchase, it draws the body loops forward and the process is repeated.

Sidewinding is a means of locomotion used in soft sand or mud whereby a snake moves diagonally along a surface. The White-bellied Mangrove snake, for example, sometimes moves by sidewinding. It pushes its head and neck against a surface and flicks its body forward in a loop. Once the tail and back part of the body gain a grip, it flicks it's body forward in a loop again.