Two-headed snake found in Virginia. What are his chances of survival?

State officials placed a rare two headed copper head snake at a viper breeder after a woman in Northern Virginia found the abnormal in her yard last week. X-rays and other examination procedures revealed that the snake also had two trachea and two esophagus, but only one heart and one set of lungs. The esophagus of the left head is more dominant, while the throat of the right head is more developed to eat. Both heads are able to bite and inject venom.

Residents who found the snake informed the Virginia Herpetological Society, which brought him for examination at a nearby hospital and wildlife protection center. Wildlife experts are now trying to make sure he stays alive. The snake seems to be about two weeks old and the authorities hope to be able to exhibit it in a zoo.

You can watch a snake video here:

Two-headed snakes are extremely rare, especially in the wild, largely because their survival rates are low. Heads have two distinct brains that are often in conflict with each other. The Wildlife Center of Virginia notes that this copper head may have special eating difficulties because the left head is more dominant, while the right head is more suited to the task.

Herpetologists have observed similar cases in which the heads are fighting over who can eat the prey, which is wasting valuable time and making the snakes vulnerable to predators. If you decide which direction to take, which prey to pursue, when to attack, how to respond to threats and whether or not you are hungry, all obstacles to survival of two-headed snakes are possible . Sometimes a chef can even pick each other for prey and try to eat it.

However, two-headed snakes held relatively well in captivity. The State University of Arizona has been busy with a two-headed snake that has survived for nearly 17 years and a two-headed corn snake that lived at San Diego Zoo has managed to give birth to 15 single-headed babies.

The two-headed snakes are the result of a developing embryo that stops in the middle of the separation process into identical twins. Such snakes can be separated at different places in the body – some two-headed snakes are also known to have two stomachs. Different organs can also be duplicated. These biological phenomena are similar to those observed in human twins. Most commonly, polyarthritis is most commonly seen in snakes, but similar cases have been observed in cats, sheep, goats, turtles and other animals.