This venomous snake can drift through the ocean for thousands of miles

Snakes are typically known to slither on the ground, but there's a venomous species that has become remarkably adept at traveling long distances in the water.

An international team of researchers has determined that the yellow-bellied sea snake can drift for more than 18,000 miles on average with the most mobile member exceeding 62,000 miles over a 10-year period.

According to The Atlantic, for the research, the team "...dropped 10,000 virtual sea snakes into 28 sites within this artificial world, and allowed them to drift for ten years."

Tracking showed that after a decade, only about 12 percent of the virtual sea snakes remained alive.

However, the distribution of the snakes throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans as well as around their native Indonesia proved to be most interesting, as it closely aligned with their real-world locations.

Based on these results, researchers believe that the yellow-bellied species takes advantage of ocean currents as a way to keep its population diverse and widespread across "two-thirds of the Earth's circumference."

Ironically, the small-sized snake is known to be a poor swimmer but is likely able to survive by simply moving along with the water.