by Rare two-headed snake nicknamed ‘Double Dave’
Baby timber rattlesnake in New Jersey has two fully formed, independently working heads. Scientists have named a rare two-headed snake Double Dave after it was found in a forest in the US state of New Jersey.
The name Double Dave was coined because it was discovered by the environmentalist Dave Schneider and his colleague, also called Dave. The venomous pit viper, which is 20-25cm (8-10 inches) long, has two fully formed heads, meaning it has four working eyes and two flickering tongues. What makes this two-headed snake unique is that it has two fully formed heads, four eyes, and two flicking tongues, but one body. With two independent heads and one common body bicephalan animals like D-D rarely sᴜʀᴠɪᴠᴇ the wild maturity; Decisions that are so easy, whether you slide left or right, or which head you eat first, suddenly become sᴛᴀɢɢᴇʀɪɴɢ will-ends, where bicephalic animals are particularly sᴜsᴄᴇᴘᴛɪʙʟᴇ to ᴘʀᴇᴅᴀᴛᴏʀs. The condition of having more than one head is known as polycephaly, and happens in much the same way that conjoined twins are formed: an embryo that has begun to split into identical twins stops before fully dividing. Two-headed snakes often have one head that is slightly more developed than the other, and the heads have been known to ꜰɪɢʜᴛ each other over food, not realising that whatever they eat is heading to the same digestive system. Two-headed animals are considered in many cultures to be a portent of ᴅɪsᴀsᴛᴇʀ, and they have frequently appeared in mythology. But although they are rare, happening in around one in 100,000 live births in the wild, two-headed snakes do turn up fairly frequently. In recent weeks, another two-headed snake made the news after it was photographed in the Bali resort of Tabanan.
Because of its ᴘᴏᴏʀ chances of sᴜʀᴠɪᴠɪɴɢ in the wild, Double Dave is being taken into ᴄᴀᴘᴛɪᴠɪᴛʏ by the Herpetological Associates. “We’ll take care of it” .
