title: Kinematics of swimming garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis).
abstract: We investigate the kinematics of swimming garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) using a novel nonlinear regression-based digitization method to establish quantitative statistical support for non-constant wavelengths in the undulatory pattern exhibited by swimming snakes. We find that in swimming snakes, the growth of the amplitude of the propulsive wave head-to-tail is strongly correlated (p < 0.005) with the head-to-tail growth in the wavelength. We investigate correlations between kinematic parameters and steady swimming speed, and find a very strong positive correlation between swimming speed and undulation frequency. We furthermore find a statistically well-supported positive correlation between swimming speed and both the initial amplitude of the propulsive wave at the head and the degree of amplitude growth from head to tail.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. yonatanmunk@berkeley.edu
authors.forename: Yonatan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Munk
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D017812:Colubridae / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology*; D013623:Tail / Q000502:physiology; D014741:Video Recording