Rare snake nicknamed ‘Double Dave’ with TWO heads that ‘think independently’ found
A RARE two-headed snake has been discovered in the US and he's called Double Dave.
The venomous serpent was found in a forest in New Jersey and it has two independently working heads, four eyes and two hissing tongues.
Double Dave is a baby timber rattlesnake and was discovered by environmentalists from the Herpetological Associates who were observing a rattlesnake birth.
Dave Schneider and his colleague, who is also called Dave, found the creature so named it after themselves.
The serpent is 8-10 inches long and has heads that work independently of each other, meaning it is often slow-moving because the heads fight over which direction to take the body.
This issue means Double Dave isn't likely to survive in the wild so the snake has been re-homed in captivity.
Two-headed snakes are rare but they have been observed in the wild a few times before.
The heads are known to fight each other over food as they don't realise that it's all going to the same digestive system.
Usually one head is more developed than the other so makes more of the decisions.
Keeping a two-headed snake alive can be difficult if they won't cooperate.
The condition of having more than one head is called polycephaly and occurs when an embryo begins to split into identical twins in the womb but then stops fully dividing.
In humans this condition produces conjoined twins.
Many cultures consider two-headed animals to indicate a disaster is about to happen.
Luckily they are only produced in around one in 100,000 live births in the wild.
Another two-headed snake was caught on camera recently in Bali but was much smaller than Double Dave.
What are the most poisonous animals in the world?
Here are seven of the most deadly creatures...
- The box jellyfish is widely regarded to be the most posionous animal in the world and contians a toxin that can cause heart attacks
- Cobras, typically found in the jungles of India and China, can spit a venom which can result in death in a very short space of time and just 7ml of their venom is enough to kill 20 humans
- The marbled cone snail is a sea creature that can release venom so toxic it can result in vision loss, respiratory failure, muscle paralysis and eventually death and, to make things worse, there is no anti-venom avaliable
- Posion dart frogs are small and brightly coloured but have glands containing a toxin that blocks nerve signals to muscles, causing paralysis and death
- Puffer fish are considered to be a dangerous delicacy because some of their anatomy contains a hazardous toxin which, if ingested in a large quantity, can cause convulsions, paralysis, cardiac arrhythmia, and ultimately death
- The Brazillian wandering spider, also known as the 'banana spider', has venom that is so high in serotonin it can paralyse and kill
- Death stalker scorpions have a fitting name as enough venom from one can cause a lot of pain and respiratory failure
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A shock study has revealed that the Loch Ness monster could actually be real.
And, bees are being trained to sniff out drugs and explosives to aid police.
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