The moment a two-headed snake devours two mice leaves viewers both amazed and horrified.
The “creepy” video was posted on the Instagram account of Brian Barczyk, owner of the reptile business BHB Reptiles in Michigan, USA. Due to an incomplete process of embryo division, some animals experience bicephaly, also known as two-headed deformity, with an incidence rate of 1 in 10,000 among snakes.
The two-headed snake is grasping both mice.
The two heads of the snake, named Ben and Jerry, belong to the California king snake species. “99.9% of animals with two-headed deformities do not survive past one year, but if they mature like Ben and Jerry, their lifespan could be quite long. I guess they could live up to 20 – 25 years,” Brian stated.
In the clip, each snake head appears to swallow a mouse independently; however, they share the same digestive system. Therefore, Brian only dares to feed Ben and Jerry baby mice to avoid “overfeeding.” He purchased this two-headed snake pair from a friend three years ago, and they are now four and a half years old.
Currently, Ben and Jerry reside at The Reptarium in Michigan, which is also home to thousands of reptiles and a sloth. The Reptarium is also caring for a two-headed turtle, an albino alligator, and a rare black caiman.
Meanwhile, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission discovered another two-headed snake in the wild. Two-headed snakes struggle to survive in their natural habitat because the two brains make different decisions, complicating their ability to hunt or evade predators.
