A rare, two-headed snake that was found a few months ago in a suburban Virginia yard has died.
Experts said it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the snake to die, but snake keepers who specialize in caring for bicephalous snakes said it was “particularly challenged because of how far down the spine was fused.”
The copperhead was about 6- to 8-inches long and was about two or three weeks old when it was found. It first showed up in September in a yard in Woodbridge, about 23 miles south of Richmond.
A photo was posted to the Facebook page of a wildlife expert and the snake’s story quickly became a social media sensation. The snake was also a notable find among scientists and biologists who called it a rarity in the world of herpetology because two-headed snakes don’t often happen in the wild. Most of those that are alive have been bred in captivity.
JD Kleopfer, the state’s herpetologist, called it an “exceptionally rare” find at the time. In his three decades of studying snakes, he said he’d never seen anything like it. “This is an extraordinary animal,” he said, calling it “a Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus kind of moment.”
The fact the snake had survived in the wild was also unusual because, experts said, it was at high risk of being eaten by a predator.