Vets are baffled after a snake breeder ended up with a two-headed boa constrictor that has two separate hearts.

The two-week-old creature, which appears to be twin snakes in "one outer skin" was featured on a National Geographic programme.

Both heads move separately and flick their own tongues.

The Floridian breeder took the reptile to vet Dr Lauren Thielen for examination, and an X-ray revealed it has two functioning hearts.

Other two-headed creatures have a tendency to have just one set of internal organs.

Dr Thielen said: “I was shocked it has two hearts. But it was really cool to understand that the Siamese twin snake was really two snakes in one outer skin.”

During the programme Thielen then used non-invasive technology called a doppler ultrasound to further examine it.

She tells National Geographic  viewers: “We're using the doppler to assess the heart rate of the snake and also to evaluate that, indeed, this snake has two hearts. “It does! Did you hear that?”

She then jokes: “So, they have a banging circulatory system. It's going to run marathons - slither marathons - this snake is.”

The machine allowed veterinarians to listen to the two individual heartbeats and confirm that the animal really does have a pair of the organs, which are both pumping blood within the body.





The doppler ultrasound also enabled the doctors track the animals' internal blood flow.Dr Thielen said she had never seen a two-headed boa before.

The case is rare, but other instances of 2-headed  snakes have been recorded.A two-headed albino Honduran milk snake called Medusa was previously featured on National Geographic.The snake was filmed eating for the first time.

Some two-headed creatures end up competing for food, but while one of Medusa's two heads started to consume a dead mouse, the other watched the spectacle calmly.

The creature seemingly swallowed the dead mouse without any issues.
Another unique trait of the two-headed boa Dr Thielen examined is the creature's two digestive tracts.

She explained: “If there are two digestive systems then we may need to provide nutrition to both snakes.”

“Snakes born like this do die because they cannot get proper nutrition, they share kidneys or they cannot defecate normally.

She said of the two-headed boa: “What is this, like, one in a million, one in ten million? It's rare, but it does happen. But I've never known it to happen in this species before. This is really neat.'

National Geographic said the two-headed boa was probably caused by an embryo that ceased to split after beginning to do so to create twins.

Lalasticlala

THEY SHOULD JUST KILL THE SNAKES AND SHARE THE MEAT

phayvoursky:
THEY SHOULD JUST KILL THE SNAKES AND SHARE THE MEAT

oga calm down nau!

ur type cant work with natgeo wild o

sirgalahad26:

oga calm down nau!
ur type cant work with natgeo wild o

Wetin concern me and bush

one named Peter and one named Paul