A REMARKABLE two-headed snake dubbed We is being auctioned on the internet by the World Aquarium with the aim of raising at least $150,000 for community education and environmental programmes in St Louis, Missouri. The reptile, a metre-long albino rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta) has survived for six years thanks to a crash course in table manners.
鈥淲e hope she will go to someone who will do more research into how a two-headed snake sees the world,鈥� aquarium director Louis Sonnenschein told New 杏吧原创.
Two-headed snakes seldom survive long because of difficulties in feeding. To help We survive, Sonnenschein taught the heads to take turns eating instead of competing for every meal. 鈥淎t first, we would present the mouse to one head and it would take it, but then the other head would grab it and they鈥檇 fight,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o I touched the non-feeding head gently with a cold metal instrument, and it would draw back. Eventually, I only had to be in the room, and the non-feeding head would behave.鈥�
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The snake seems to rely on direct visual cues to home in on its prey, because only the feeding head鈥檚 pupils narrow to slits during the final attack.
