Two-Headed Snake Finds New Home in Central Texas Zoo

WACO, TX -- the newest animal exhibit at the Cameron Park Zoo isn’t terribly exotic, but it is pretty unique.

On Sept. 16, a two-headed rat snake has joined the ranks of reptilian inhabitants after it was found by a McLennan County woman in her yard recently.

“Her dog found it, and it was probably just recently hatched. It’s probably only about 6 to 8 weeks old now,” Brian Henley, an amphibian and reptile care supervisor at the zoo told the Waco Tribune-Herald. “She brought it in, and we were really surprised by it, because as long as I’ve been here, we’ve never had a two-headed animal at this zoo. This is pretty exciting for us.”

Texas rat snakes, which are pretty harmless, are medium to large snakes that primarily feed on rodents and birds and can grow to more than five feet long.

The zoo’s new resident reptile will be quarantined until early 2017 and allowed to mature before it is on public display in the Brazos River Country exhibit, Henley said.

The snake is comparable to conjoined twins who share many of the same organs.

“In speaking with people who have raised two-headed snakes, typically one head eats while the other head drinks,” he said. “This snake is still young, so we will monitor it every feeding time.”

A snake with two heads stands a better chance of living in captivity that it would in the wild, particularly when it comes to running from predators, Henley said.

“If a predator is going to attack a two-headed snake, oftentimes one head will go one way and the other head will go the other way, so the snake doesn’t really go anywhere,” he said.

Image Andy Carvin via Flickr