sidewinding

thumb|Sidewinding in a newborn sidewinder rattlesnake. Yellow regions are lifted above the sand and in motion at the time of the photo, while green regions are in static contact with the sand. Blue denotes tracks. Scale imprints are visible in the tracks, showing that the snake's body is static during ground contact. thumb|right|Tracks of a sidewinder in the sand

Sidewinding is a type of locomotion unique to snakes, used to move across loose or slippery substrates. It is most often used by the Saharan horned viper, Cerastes cerastes, the Mojave sidewinder rattlesnake, Crotalus cerastes, and the Namib desert sidewinding adder, Bitis peringueyi, to move across loose desert sands, and also by Homalopsine snakes in Southeast Asia to move across tidal mud flats. Any number of caenophidian snakes can be induced to sidewind on smooth surfaces, though the difficulty in getting them to do so and their proficiency at it vary greatly.