Facts About Two-Headed Snakes

Two-headed animals are not myths or legends and are actually born all the time in the wild and in captivity. The condition of being two-headed is also called polycephaly, which means having multiple heads. Two-headed snakes are rare, but they do occur in the wild and in captivity.

  1. Cause

    • Two-headed snakes occur when the embryo inside of an egg does not divide fully. In the case of identical twins, an embryo divides into two instead of one.An egg containing a two-headed snake is an egg that was initially going to hold twins. The twins just didn't separate properly, similar to any other two-headed animal.

    Lifespan

    • In general, snakes can live one to two decades in captivity where they are well-fed and there are no predators, depending on the species. In the wild, this lifespan may be restricted significantly for two-headed snakes that cannot escape predators well. If the two-headed snake is able to eat properly, and the two heads are not able to bite each other, a two-headed snake can live as long as any other snake. One famous snake named "We" who lived at the World Aquarium in St. Louis lived to be 8 years old. Arizona State University also had one two-headed snake that lived to be 17 years old.

    Eating

    • All two-headed snakes are different because of how they fail to divide as embryos. Some will share a stomach and throat but have two mouths, while others will have two separate stomachs and two throats. The snakes with separate stomachs will each eat their own prey, but may fight over the prey if one head has prey in its mouth while the other does not.

    Fun Fact

    • The two-headed snake symbolizes many different things in various cultures. Two-headed snakes represent a variety of characters in Greek and Egyptian mythology, gods in Hinduism and different folklore from around the world.