Snake rescuer Nick Evans from Durban has seen some incredible things in his life, but even he was surprised when he got a call to remove a snake with two heads from a home recently.
A man from Ndwedwe saw the southern brown egg-eater, a common, totally harmless species in his yard.
‘Two-headed snakes have hatched in captivity and in the wild, but it’s very rare. It is a deformity,’ says Evans. ‘He [the caller] didn’t want anyone to harm it, and put it in a bottle. He asked me to collect it and take it away from there. Having never seen a two-headed snake, I jumped at the opportunity!
‘It was such a strange sight, seeing this deformed snake. It’s a juvenile, around 30cm in length. It was quite interesting to see how it moved. Sometimes, the heads would try go in opposite directions from one another, other times, it would rest one head on the other. That seemed the most effective way of moving,’ Evans continued.
‘It is in professional care now. There is no point releasing it. As far as I am aware, they don’t generally live long. This one wouldn’t last long at all in the wild. It can barely move, and when it does, it does so incredibly slowly. Very easy pickings for a predator.’
‘If it hatched months or weeks ago, and survived this long, I’ll be truly surprised. I’m intrigued to hear if it can feed on it’s own or not. They only eat bird eggs, so it will have to be tiny eggs! We want to try and learn as much as possible from this little one. I’ll keep you posted on it,’ Evans said.
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Pictures: Nick Evans / www.kznamphibianreptileconservation.com
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