A video showing an eastern hognose snake playing dead has racked up over a million views on Instagram. The snake’s theatric performance is both impressive and hilarious.
The video comes from Will Robertson, a wildlife enthusiast, biology major, and video creator. He shows viewers an eastern hognose snake’s defensive behavior up close as he picks up the snake, flips it over, flips it again, and flips it again. Each time, the snake turns its body so it’s still upside-down and looking dead as a doorknob. It absolutely refuses to break character no matter how many times Robertson flips it.
“One cool thing the eastern hognoses do after they play dead—I haven’t showed this yet—is basically, once they’re playing dead, if you flip them back over, they flip themselves over again,” Robertson says as he demonstrates.
Of course, it’s hard to picture this from just a written description. Watch a snake be 100% committed to making Robertson think it’s dead here:
The eastern hognose snake has a wide geographic distribution in the United States, ranging from the central U.S. to the east coast. Though it’s mildly venomous, its venom doesn’t typically harm humans. They’re well known for playing dead, but this behavior just takes it to the next level.
Have you ever seen a snake this committed to playing dead?