A video that recently went viral of what looked like a thick and long snake just got a new twist. The video of this strange animal that looked furry, thick, long was doing rounds on the internet. People were hooked on to the video and were wondering what exactly the creature was. A beast that hesitatingly crawling away confused the internet. However, very soon the reality of the mysterious animal that looked like a snake was out. It was actually a long trail of rats that were presumably pretending to be snakes to deceive their predator.

A closer look at the low-resolution video somehow made it clear that it was but a chain of small furry animals. The video was viewed about 5 million times. Shared by a Twitter user, Cainebraswell, described the video as, "Rats pretending to be a snake to avoid predators." Twitter soon went berserk over the video and the idea that the rats pretended to be a snake to scare their predator away.

Take a look at the video of rats pretended to be a snake to scare their predator away.

However, the truth is entirely different from what it looks like. No matter how creative the idea of rats turning into snake sounds, the reality is that it is a mother shrew just travelling in a chain together with its offsprings and performing a family behaviour called a “caravan.” Experts believe that usually this kind of action is seen in shrews wherein each shrew bites the tail of the one ahead and move together. Their mothers usually lead this chain. They do this to remain safe and not get lost. Shrews typically do it to protect their babies that are too young. Sometimes shrews also caravan when their habitat is destroyed, and they have to escape to a safer place.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 16, 2019 03:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).