“I wanted to look away but couldn’t stop looking at it”
A woman in Virginia got a nasty surprise when looking through her neighbour’s flowerbed this week.
Stephanie Myers came across this terrifying two-headed copperhead snake, just wriggling around, minding its own business.
An "exceptionally rare" two-headed copperhead snake was found in Virginia. Wildlife experts are caring for it, and it will be donated to a zoo if it survives. https://t.co/WbWAABKJ2H pic.twitter.com/Rgj5kejHkr
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) September 23, 2018
Virginia Wildlife Management and Control posted photos of the snake on their Facebook, to help spread this nightmare fuel around the world.
“I wanted to look away but couldn’t stop looking at it,” Myers told USA Today. “Plays tricks on the eyes.”
At about six inches long, it was only a baby – copperheads can grow up to 36 inches.
If you want to be even more freaked out, here is some video of it slithering about.
Wow 😲🐍
This rare double-headed snake was found in a garden in Virginia pic.twitter.com/3O9K3dNyzj
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 23, 2018
The freakish animal is the result of a mutation, formed by similar processes to those that causes conjoined twins.
State herpetologist J.D. Kleopfer said that finding a snake with the mutation in the wild was “extremely rare” – such animals struggle to survive as the two different heads often want to do “two different things.”
“The left head has the dominant oesophagus,” Kleopfer said of this particular critter, “and the right head has the more developed throat for eating.”
Radiographs revealed that it has two oesophaguses and two tracheas, but both heads share one heart and one set of lungs.
The snake is now being looked after by an experienced viper keeper, and Kleopfer hopes it will eventually go to live in a zoo.
