The Hoop Snake, Another Dangerous Critter

There were a couple of other incidents that occurred with Peter from Holtie's House and me during our journey on our Brisbane to Perth trip around Australia. I’ve already shown the video of the drop bear and now I want to share with you the attack of the Hoop Snake.

What is a Hoop Snake.

The Hoop Snake, or Oxyuranus Hulaii, is found throughout the Australian continent. Hoop snakes are dangerous snakes. When surprised one of these snakes will grab its tail in its mouth, form a "hoop" with its body, and roll away. One version of the myth says that the hoop snake will chase a person in this manner, but a conflicting version says that the hoop snake uses this means to escape from a threat. Yet another version has it that the snake
will roll down a hill killing anything and everything in its path.

Other snakes crawl upon their bellies, and so can this snake, but it has another method of moving peculiar to his own species, which he always adopts when he is in eager pursuit of his prey; he throws himself into a circle, running rapidly around, advancing like a hoop, with his tail arising and pointed forward in the circle, by which he is always in the ready position of striking. It is observed that they only make use of this method in attacking.

Sightings are still occasionally reported, even though the existence of the hoop snake has never been accepted by the scientific community.

The Hoop Snake's attack works best from uphill. A Hoop Snake will wait at the top of a hill, mountain or even slight incline. It will wait until an unsuspecting victim walks past below doing something innocent and unsuspecting like going to the shops to buy some bread or walking around looking for cars to steal.

When the hoop snake spies its victim it bites its own tail to form the hoop. It then begins to roll towards the victim. With undulations of its muscular body it gains speed and momentum at an extraordinary rate. Before long it is careening headlong towards the unsuspecting victim.

I must have had a charmed life during this trip as only coming off with a few scratches with the Drop Bear, the Hoop Snake, after it had knocked me over by falling on me, it just laid there allowing me to escape. Perhaps the length of the chase wore the hoop snake out, and it did not have enough strength to “finish me off”.

Again I can only warn those who travel in the Australian outback to take great care, as Australia has the most deadly snakes in the world and the hoop snake is one of them.