# Cartwheeling snake: tiny Borneo reed snake rolls away from danger at 13 km/h

Source: Searchable (https://searchable.pk/news/viral/cartwheeling-snake-tiny-borneo-reed-snake-rolls-away-from-danger-at-13-kmh)
Type: News article
Author: Searchable Editorial
Published: 20 Oct 2026
Updated: 20 Oct 2026
Retrieved: 20 Oct 2026

> A pencil-length snake flips head over tail like a wheel to escape, and scientists have now filmed exactly how. Watch how it keeps its head still while the body spins.

A tiny snake from the rainforests of Borneo escapes danger by turning itself into a wheel: it flips head over tail and **cartwheels away at up to 3.7 metres a second (about 13 km/h)**, filmed in detail for the first time in a study published on **19 October 2026** in the journal *Current Biology*.

The animal is a dwarf reed snake, *Pseudorabdion saravacense*, just **11 to 28 centimetres** long, about the length of a pencil, [Science News reported](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/tiny-snakes-cartwheel-escape-video).

## How the cartwheeling snake works

The team, led by ecologist **Yosuke Kojima** of Toho University in Japan, collected snakes in **Kubah National Park** in Sarawak, Malaysia, and filmed them on a **2.2-metre** track. Each roll goes like this:

1. The snake curls into a **C shape**, head raised and pointing the way it wants to go.
2. It whips its tail back and briefly **leaves the ground**.
3. The tail swings forward and down, past the head.
4. The tail lands beside the head and the next roll begins.

The striking part is the head: it stays fairly steady while the body spins around it, much as flying snakes keep their heads still when they launch into the air. Speeds ranged from **1.7 to 3.7 m/s**, roughly 6 to 13 km/h.

## Why it is surprising

Snakes are long and flexible, which makes rolling hard. "I find it especially amazing that an elongate animal like a snake can manage to roll," said **Jessica Tingle**, a Brown University biologist who was not part of the study. "What a cool snake behavior."

Not all small snakes can do it. Six *Calamaria* reed snakes tested for comparison never cartwheeled. The team also looked at single specimens of two related species, *P. collaris* and *P. longiceps*; a 2023 paper in *Biotropica* had captured the first still photos of *P. longiceps* cartwheeling, after a colleague in Sarawak reported seeing the behaviour in 2019.

Kojima says the snakes are usually hard to find because they hide under fallen leaves, and that people can catch them. Rolling is their way of getting out of sight fast when something disturbs them.

## Is it dangerous?

No. These are small, secretive snakes of Borneo's forest floor, a long way from Pakistan. If you are worried about snakes closer to home, our report on [1,060 snake bites logged by Rescue 1122 in Punjab this year](/news/lifestyle/1060-snake-bites-in-punjab-this-year-6-deaths-what-rescue-1122-logged) covers what to do after a bite.

The full study, "Locomotor kinematics and head stabilization in rolling snakes", is in [Current Biology](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.08.057), and Science News has posted the slow-motion video.

## Frequently asked questions

**Which snake can cartwheel?**

The dwarf reed snake Pseudorabdion saravacense from Borneo, 11 to 28 cm long, rolls head over tail at 1.7 to 3.7 metres a second to escape, a Current Biology study published on 19 October 2026 found.

## Sources

- These tiny snakes cartwheel to escape danger (Science News): https://www.sciencenews.org/article/tiny-snakes-cartwheel-escape-video
- Locomotor kinematics and head stabilization in rolling snakes (Kojima et al., 19 Oct 2026) (Current Biology): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.08.057

How to cite: "Cartwheeling snake: tiny Borneo reed snake rolls away from danger at 13 km/h", Searchable, 20 Oct 2026, https://searchable.pk/news/viral/cartwheeling-snake-tiny-borneo-reed-snake-rolls-away-from-danger-at-13-kmh