KIRKWOOD, Mo. – Are two heads actually higher than one? Visitors to the Missouri Department of Conservation’s (MDC) Powder Valley Nature Center in Kirkwood can quickly discover out.
Tiger-Lily, a two-headed western rat snake, (Pantherophis obsoletus), will arrive at Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center on Tuesday, Jan. 23. The snake will stay there for guests to see till the top of February. From there, the two-headed snake will proceed her journey round Missouri, staying quickly at different MDC websites throughout the state.
Tiger-Lily is on mortgage from her home on the Shepherd of the Hills Conservation Center close to Branson, which is presently closed for development.
Western rat snakes are non-venomous and native to Missouri. Tiger-Lily is definitely a pair of conjoined similar snake twins that had been by no means fully separated. Such snakes are hardly ever seen within the wild, partly as a result of snakes born this manner have a low survival charge.
“Tiger-Lily” is the identify given to the two-headed snake by the household who discovered this distinctive reptile in Stone County in 2017,” mentioned MDC Interpretive Center Manager Alison Bleich. “The female snake was donated to the Shepherd of the Hills Conservation Center for display purposes. “Tiger-Lily is almost five feet long and has a healthy appetite,” in response to Bleich, however she mentioned that feeding time at all times presents a problem.
“Both heads want to eat, but they only have one esophagus,” Bleich mentioned. “We put a small cup over one head while the other eats, then switch. Otherwise, both would be trying to grab the same mouse.”
Eating is only one of a large number of struggles going through a polycephalous (two-headed) animal. If it had been within the wild, a two-headed snake would even be extraordinarily vulnerable to predation as a result of it wouldn’t have the flexibility to flee into the conventional holes and crevices that one-headed snakes can match into.
However, in captivity, a two-headed snake’s probabilities of survival are significantly better. Ansother two-headed western rat snake that was present in 2005 is presently on show at MDC’s Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center in in southeast Missouri.
“Come in and meet Tiger-Lily at Powder Valley Nature Center this winter, along with our other exhibit animals such as venomous and non-venomous snakes, turtles, and fish,” mentioned Interim Nature Center Manager, Robyn Parker.
Powder Valley Nature Center is situated at 11715 Cragwold Road in Kirkwood, close to the intersection of I-270 and I-44.
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