On the 25th of August, a two-headed baby timber rattlesnake was found in a forest in New Jersey. The snake was found by enviromentalists from the Herpetological Associates group, who study endagered and threatened reptiles.
The snake was named Double Dave, because it was discovered by Dave Schneider and his colleage Dave Burkett. The viper is 9 inches long and has two fully formed heads, which work independantly.
"It would be pretty hard for this snake to survive in the wild." Dave Schneider said.
He said the snake stiffens when trying to escape, it would have been easy for predators to catch.
Animals with two heads that work independantly rarely survive to maturity, often fighting over which way to move and which head gets to eat first, despite food going to the same digestive track anyways. Because of how vulnrable bicephalic animals are to predators, the Schneider decided to take the young snake back to his office, where he has been caring for the snake for several weeks.
"It appears the head on the right side is the more dominant one," Schneider told ABC News. "But every once in a while, the other head will want to go in a different direction."
Double Dave seems healthy, but Schneider and his colleages want to X-ray the snake to find out wether it has a fully formed digestive track or not.
Sources:
https://www.livescience.com/double-dave-bicephalic-rattlesnake.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49598840
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