Hoop snake

Lore & Background

According to folklore, the hoop snake can grasp its tail in its jaws and roll after its prey like a wheel. 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 and promptly dies from the poison. An Australian rendition describes a circular-shaped snake roughly the size of a steering wheel with elongated spines along the inner lining of its body, hypothesized to rapidly constrict to entrap the limb of a kangaroo, wallaby, dingo, or human.

The hoop snake is mentioned in a letter from 1784, published in Tour in the U.S.A., Vol. I, which describes the snake throwing itself into a circle and advancing like a hoop, with its tail pointed forward in the circle, ready to strike. The letter notes that the snake uses this method only when attacking; when fleeing, it crawls on its belly like other serpents. The creatures also made their way into African-American traditions; Liddie Aiken, the daughter of a former slave, recounted how her mother feared hoop snakes, which were said to be able to kill anything their horn or tail touched.

Reader's Guide

The hoop snake appears in the folklore of various parts of the United States, including Virginia and West Virginia, with alleged sightings along the Minnesota–Wisconsin border in the St. Croix River valley, Wake County and Watauga County in North Carolina, Prince Edward Island, and Kamloops, British Columbia. Despite occasional reports, the existence of the hoop snake has never been accepted by the scientific community. Naturalist Raymond Ditmars placed $10,000 in trust at a New York bank for the first person to provide evidence of a hoop snake. Some have suggested it is a distorted description of the sidewinder of the American Southwest, or of mud snakes, which will occasionally lie in a loose hoop shape. The hoop snake possibly is an embellishment of actual instances of snakes swallowing their own tails, mistaking them for prey. The dwarf reed snake (Pseudorabdion longiceps) of Southeast Asia has been filmed 'cartwheeling' as an escape mechanism, superficially similar to the behavior described for the hoop snake.

Did You Know?

• The hoop snake is mentioned in a letter from 1784 published in Tour in the U.S.A., Vol. I.
• Naturalist Raymond Ditmars placed $10,000 in trust at a New York bank for the first person to provide evidence of a hoop snake.
• An Australian rendition describes a circular snake with elongated spines along the inner lining of its body.
• The dwarf reed snake of Southeast Asia has been filmed 'cartwheeling' as an escape mechanism, similar to the hoop snake's behavior.