The Guardian (USA)

Rare two-headed snake nicknamed 'Double Dave' is found in US

- Martin Belam

Scientists have named a rare twoheaded snake Double Dave after it was found in a forest in the US state of New Jersey.

The baby timber rattlesnak­e was discovered last month by environmen­talists from the Herpetolog­ical Associates group, who study endangered and threatened reptiles.

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.

Schneider explained that Double Dave’s two heads worked independen­tly of each other, and it would be difficult for such a creature to survive in the wild, because the condition meant it was slow-moving and could be easily picked off by prey.

Two-headed snakes often have one head that is slightly more developed than the other, and the heads have been known to fight each other over food, not realising that whatever they eat is heading to the same digestive system.

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 animals are considered in many cultures to be a portent of disaster, and they have frequently appeared in mythology. But although they are rare, happening in around one in 100,000 live births in the wild, twoheaded snakes do turn up fairly frequently. In recent weeks, another twoheaded snake made the news after it was photograph­ed in the Bali resort of Tabanan.

In 2018, a two-headed snake even went on tour. Named Tom and Jerry, the 17-year-old California kingsnake appeared as one of the star attraction­s at the Reptile Expo in Villeneuve, Switzerlan­d.

Keeping two-headed snakes alive can pose problems. Photograph­s of a two-headed eastern copperhead found in Woodbridge, Virginia, last year went viral, and the viper breeder Cooper Sallade, who was looking after it, told Wired magazine: “Since the snake had such an incomprehe­nsible amount of media attention, there was a lot of pressure on me to keep that thing alive.”

He ended up gently force-feeding it, because the heads were not well-developed enough to eat independen­tly, but after a few months the snake died.

Because of its poor chances of surviving in the wild, Double Dave is being taken into captivity by the Herpetolog­ical Associates. “We’ll take care of it,” said Schneider.

 ?? Photograph: AP ?? The newborn two-headed timber rattlesnak­e discovered in New Jersey.
Photograph: AP The newborn two-headed timber rattlesnak­e discovered in New Jersey.
 ?? Photograph: Oka Widiartana/AFP/Get ?? A rare two-headed snake is seen in the palm of a person’s hand in Tabanan, Bali.
Photograph: Oka Widiartana/AFP/Get A rare two-headed snake is seen in the palm of a person’s hand in Tabanan, Bali.

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