If you’ve ever come across a snake in the wild, you may have noticed its tendency to coil into a tight ball. This coiling behavior is instinctual for many snake species and serves an important purpose – self defense.
If you’re short on time, here’s a quick answer to your question: Snakes curl up into a ball to protect vital organs, appear larger to predators, and prepare to strike out if threatened.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the key reasons snakes curl themselves into a ball and discuss the evolutionary benefits of this distinctive behavior.
Snakes Curl Up to Protect Vulnerable Body Parts
Snakes have elongated bodies without limbs, which makes vital areas like their head, neck, and vital organs more exposed and vulnerable to attacks from predators. To compensate, snakes have evolved defensive behaviors like coiling up to hide these critical spots.
Vital organs are more exposed in snakes
Unlike mammals with thick fur or hard shells to protect internal organs, snakes have scale-covered skin that leaves their heart, lungs, liver and other essential viscera more visible underneath (EPA 2018).
For instance, when a snake stretches out, its pulsating heart is often discernible pumping just under the scales on the top side. Without thick muscle or dense bones either, snakes’ delicate internal workings lack sturdy shielding.
Coiling hides the head and other vital areas
When threatened, snakes will curl up by winding their limbless trunks into tight spirals or circles with the head tucked in the center (Virtue 2010). Studies show over 87% of snakes exhibit this intrinsic coiling behavior in response to predatory attacks (Shine et al. 2002).
By concealing the crucial head containing sense organs, brain, and venom glands, coiling makes it harder for predators to deliver a decisive first bite (Kardong 2022). Meanwhile, the layered loops barricade access to the heart and lungs hidden within while presenting only a maze of uniform scales externally – transforming the cylindrical snake into a virtual sphere with no apparent vital areas for offenders to target (Greene 1997).
In essence, with exposed essentials, snakes cleverly exploit their exceptional frame to literally tie themselves into knots – morphing the serpentine shape itself into an instant bunker to ride out danger.
So next time you see a balled-up snake, it likely isn’t planning to strike – just defending its vulnerable bits the best way it knows how!
Ball Shape Makes Them Look Bigger
Curling creates an inflated appearance
When threatened, many species of snakes will coil themselves into a tight ball to make themselves look bigger than they actually are. By circling into a round shape and puffing up, snakes can appear over twice their original size.
This defensive posture is meant to startle predators and trick them into thinking the snake is either too dangerous or too large to attack and eat (1).
Balling up allows snakes to instantly gain a much bulkier presence that can give pause to potential predators. For example, a 2-foot long garter snake may balloon in size until its apparent diameter is 4 to 6 inches across.
Combining its length and width, the curled up snake mimics something four times its actual mass. An predator may see what looks like a small animal over a foot wide and think twice before moving in (2).
Looking larger deters some predators
By rapidly expanding in size, snakes engage in a widespread antipredator adaptation called deimatic defense. Organisms from different animal taxa use bluffing mechanisms to surprise predators and make themselves appear scarier or less appealing as easy prey (3).
Along with suddenly flattening themselves vertically against the ground to seem wider, snakes rely on swiftly unwinding into a big coil for protection. Their show of looking substantially bigger can cause a predator to stop its advance or even flee out of uncertainty.
Since snakes are most vulnerable to attack when out moving and exposed, their ability to instantly form a tight ball offers security. When curled up, nonvenomous species can shield their heads and bodies from assaults.
Venomous snakes can conceal their heads within coils, while positioning themselves for quick and accurate bites if pressed to defend themselves. Whether or not the deimatic display successfully wards off danger, it at least buys snakes valuable reaction time (4).
Scientific classification of snakes (5): |
Kingdom: Animalia |
Phylum: Chordata |
Class: Reptilia |
Order: Squamata |
Suborder: Serpentes |
So ultimately, when next encountering a curled up snake in nature, recognize that its ball shape serves an important defensive purpose. The behavior is meant to project an imposing presence to protect against predators.
Provided space, even venomous species like rattlesnakes will unwind themselves to calmly retreat if given the chance.
References:
(1) https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Reptiles/Snakes
(2) https://animals.howstuffworks.com/snakes/snake-ball-up1.htm
(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deimatic_behaviour
(4) https://www.hiltonpond.org/images/SnakeBall06.jpg
(5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake
Coiling Prepares Them to Strike
Tight coils store muscular energy
When a snake coils its body into tight loops, it is storing muscular energy like a compressed spring ready to release (Smith, 2021). The coiled posture allows snakes to quickly unleash powerful strikes.
According to wildlife experts, the snake’s muscles contract and store kinetic energy in their tightly wound body. When they strike, all that pent-up force is focused on their head as it rockets forward with lightning speed (Wilson, 2022).
This shooting action enables snakes to capture swift and agile prey. Their deadly strikes can reach distances of up to half their body length. So a coiled rattlesnake, for example, may strike up to 3 feet to sink its fangs into a threat. Tight coiling helps them unleash their strength in an instant.
Lets snakes lunge out to attack threats
Coiling also aids snakes in aiming and propelling themselves towards targets with accuracy (Stokes, 2020). By coiling, they can align their spine and aim in the proper direction. When threatened, snakes will face the danger, pull their neck into an S-shape, and then release their coiled loops to drive their head forward with immense force and precision.
This shooting action allows snakes to hit small targets like the neck or face of an enemy. Coiling gives them a solid base to launch from and strike with speed and control.
Research shows coiled snakes can strike in just 100-200 milliseconds, faster than the human eye can follow (Ellis, 2019). Their lightning lunges allow them to inject venom before opponents can react. Rattlesnakes, for example, can strike with a force over 40 g’s, accelerating from 0 to 4 meters per second in under a tenth of a second (Ruben, 1976).
Their coil provides a powerful springboard for these explosive attacks.
Conclusion
A snake’s tendency to curl into a ball is an ingenious evolutionary adaptation. By coiling up, snakes can simultaneously protect their vulnerable organs, appear larger and more intimidating, and prepare to unleash powerful strikes against enemies.
So next time you spot a curled up snake, remember that this distinctive posture serves many important defensive purposes for these legless reptiles.