Hoop Snakes

The mystery of hoop snakes is a fascinating and enduring legend that has captured the imaginations of people for generations. According to folklore, hoop snakes are a mythical species of snake that has the ability to grasp its tail in its mouth and roll like a wheel, forming a hoop as it moves.

This unusual and seemingly impossible behavior has led to numerous tales and accounts of hoop snakes in various cultures around the world, particularly in North America and Australia. Descriptions of hoop snakes vary, but they are often said to be venomous and capable of pursuing their prey with remarkable speed by rolling after them. In one version of the myth, the snake straightens out at the last second, skewering its victim with its venomous tail.

The only escape is to hide behind a tree, which receives the deadly blow instead and promptly dies from the poison. An Australian rendition of the myth describes a circular-shaped snake roughly the size of a steering wheel with a set of elongated spines evenly spaced along the inner lining of its circular-shaped body.

It is hypothesised that the snake has the ability to rapidly constrict, quickly reducing the circumferences of its body to entrap the limb of a kangaroo, wallaby, dingo or human. The idea of a snake rolling like a hoop may seem far-fetched from a biological standpoint, as snakes typically move by slithering. Nevertheless, the legend of hoop snakes persists, with reported sightings and anecdotes adding to the mystique surrounding these mythical creatures. The origin of the hoop snake legend is challenging to trace, as it has become deeply ingrained in regional folklore.

Some suggest that the myth may have arisen as a way to explain unusual snake behaviors or sightings. Others believe it could be a cautionary tale created to discourage people from approaching snakes or to instill a healthy fear of these reptiles. Naturalist Raymond Ditmars^[1], known for his work in herpetology and as the curator of reptiles at the New York Zoological Society

(now known as the Wildlife Conservation Society), once stirred public interest in the hoop snake legend. In the early 20th century, Ditmars placed $10,000 in trust at a New York bank, offering the substantial reward to anyone who could provide verifiable evidence of the existence of a hoop snake. This monetary incentive served to heighten the intrigue surrounding the mythical creature and encouraged individuals to come forward with accounts or proof of their encounters.

Despite the fervent interest generated by Ditmars’ reward, no credible evidence of hoop snakes emerged, and the mystery persisted as a captivating element of American folklore. Perhaps giving Wildlife Conservation Society reason for hope, Skeptical Inquirer is naming the hoop snake the Best Animal Discovery of 2023. First published online in Biotropica (The Scientific Journal of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation^[2]) and reported later in Science, researchers documented an actual snake cartwheeling for the first time (the video was recorded in 2019 but released on April 5, 2023).

Rather than being a new species, however, this film instead documented a new observed behavior in the dwarf reed snake. Disappointingly, the cartwheeling behavior was used to escape harm (rather than to attack a victim), and the tail contained no venom.