Two-headed copperhead snake found in Virginia

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There was no apparent cause of death, said J.D. Kleopfer, a reptiles and amphibians specialist for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

“Our little buddy peacefully passed away last week,” he said.

After the snake was found in September in a flower bed, it was placed under the care of a private, experienced snake keeper.

Kleopfer said this snake was “particularly challenged” because of how far down its body the spine was fused. “(It) puts a lot of stress on the spine when the heads want to move in different directions,” he said.

Kleopfer said the snake’s body will be donated to a museum. USA Today

From the Facebook page of Virginia Wildlife Management and Control comes this mutant copperhead with two heads!

The snake was even written up in Newsweek:

The woman found…the two-headed snake outside her home in Woodbridge, Virginia…After the Virginia Wildlife Management and Control confirmed the woman was seeing a two-headed snake, the snake was turned over to the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro, located about 120 miles from where it was found.

In a press release, the Wildlife Center of Virginia shared that the left head appears to be more dominant than the right. Radiographs were conducted on the snake, which revealed that the two-headed snake has two tracheas, (windpipe) and two esophaguses (food canal). The two heads share the same heart and only have one set of lungs.