A Snake in An All Female Enclosure Got Pregnant with Her Clones- I Blame Jurassic Park
Get ready to have your mind blown – A Snake in An All Female Enclosure Got Pregnant with Her Clones- I Blame Jurassic Park.
Now this sounds like something that would be a cruel joke but it’s entirely true and the story is CRAZY!
Honestly, I wish I were kidding too because a snake reproducing itself is terrifying…
According to reports, staffers at the New England Aquarium last winter were setting up for an after-hours event near the Amazon rain forest exhibit when they made an unexpected discovery.
Unexpected as in they found that Anna the anaconda had given birth to a litter of baby snakes.
The weirdest part – she was in an all female enclosure.
Now, if you thought that perhaps a male had accidentally been placed in there, think again.
Staff double checked to ensure all the snakes were indeed female and the were.
So, let’s process this shall we?
A giant snake – 30 pounds, 8 years old and 10 feet long – had given birth to her CLONES.
How is this even possible you might ask?
Well, I blame Jurassic Park, maybe mama snake watch it too many times (and honestly, haven’t we all?) but in reality, it is a rare reproductive strategy called parthenogenesis, which means that a female organism can self-impregnate. She does not need a man-aconda.
The word itself is of Greek origin and translation means virgin birth.
Yes, a virgin snake gave birth to her babies.
While some of the baby snakes lived, most of them were stillborn. Only about 3 were alive and lived. Again, most likely due to the circumstances of how mom-aconda became pregnant.
So, now we all need to be terrified that our snakes, spiders and other slithery and creepy crawlies are going to start reproducing on their own!!
