Bruce Gibson, age 11, of Huntsville, Alabama, for his question:
Do hoop snakes really roll down hills?
The hoop snake is classified with the ostrich who buries his head in the sand and horse hair that transforms itself into a worm. In the same class, we meet the camel who stores water in his hump and the chicken hearted elephant who is scared of mice. All of these nature stories have been proved downright unture. As for the hoop snake, there are sound biological reasons why he cannot roll down a slope, or in any other direction.
Some people look you in the eye and tell you that they personally have seen a hoop snake do his special thing. They say he grabs his tail in his mouth and stiffens his snakey body to form a circle. We are not given precise details as to how he tips himself up like a bicycle wheel. But obviously this must be done before he can proceed to the next part of his performance. This happens when he takes off, bowling over the ground like a runaway hoola hoop.
Hoop snake fanciers may insist that this amazing creature can bowl along in any direction he chooses. What's more, he can outdistance any snake traveling by ordinary means and more often than not he chases a victim with wicked intent to do bodily harm. Other hoop snake supporters allow for the fact that the rolling snake could not see where he's going. They doubt he can chase a victim over level ground but insist that he can roll, willy nilly, down a slope.
If a snake were smart enough to grasp these fanciful theories, he might consider changing his travel method. But snakes are not very smart. Besides, nature limits them to crawling, swimming and some species are allowed to climb trees. And, of course, nature's decrees are enforced by built in biological features. A snake is born with some amazing equipment for his limited locomotion and no other method is possible for him. Naturally it is arranged to suit his particular way of life.
The long, legless creature can slither silently along the ground, which is fine for sneaking up on his speedy victims and avoiding his speedy enemies. His crawling action depends on a long supple spine attached to 200 or more pairs of curved ribs. The bones involved are moved by a multitude of smooth, overlapping muscles. For good measure, there are scaley spurs on his underside to grip the ground and prevent backsliding.
He progresses by bending his spine from side to side in a series of graceful waves. Muscles work to close the ribs of the inner sides of the curves and to spread them apart on the outer sides. As the waving motion repeats from side to side, his grippers push against the ground and he glides along like rippling water.
Even if a silly snake wanted to change this graceful and efficient system, he could not do it. So a hoop snake in hot pursuit is not more scarey than a bogeyman because neither of them exists.