Two headed snake

A two headed snake!

An albino California King Snake with two heads went on display last year at a zoo in Ukraine. The two heads act independently of one another, and have even been known to fight over food (the keepers puts a barrier between the two heads at feeding time now). One head is noticeably dominant to the other.

The condition is known as Polycephaly and occurs when monozygotic twins fail to separate completely.Most organisms with this condition will not live for long, but occasionally you will get cases like this one, where the snake(s?) seem healthy enough and can live for years.
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Yuck - freak of nature it may be but a two headed snake gives me the shivvers!

I think its amazing .x

Oi woman - have you checked your phone or are you ignoring me!

its on charge Helen in the kitchen hang on i will go get it x

So you should - something to make you smile x

BBM you back ... bird .x

wow, that's really fascinating. I wonder how long it will live for then. SO strange.

I have seen a couple of them Fiona so im not sure if it is as rare as we think .


Two-headed snakes do not have a long life expectancy, particularly in the wild. Each head has a brain and, usually, some control over the shared body, and the two cannot communicate with each other. Movement is therefore difficult, as each head may try to travel in a different direction, and in the worst case scenario, the heads may fight or try to eat each other.

Some two-headed snakes share a stomach, while others have a stomach for each head. In a two-headed snake with separate stomachs, one of the heads may die if it routinely loses fights over food. Even if there is only one stomach, two-headed snakes may not be able to capture prey if the heads are competing for food.


Little more info for you Fiona .x

Thanks, this is really interesting.

Wow. That's really fascinating. I guess you'd usually expect one brain to control everything, so having 2 must confuse things, as they must surey conflict. Nature is such a fascinating thing. :)x