Oldest ball python in captivity lays eggs despite not being near a male in decades
"Snake #361003 at the Saint Louis Zoo has laid a clutch of eggs despite not being near a male snake in decades.
The ball python, at least 62-years-old...has been at the zoo since 1961 & hasn’t even seen a male snake in more than 15 years.
'We’re saying 15 plus years, but I mean, it’s probably easily closer to 30 years since she’s been physically with a male,' Mark Wanner, the Zoological Manager of Herpetology told CNN.
Male & female snakes were mixed in the 80s & 90s when they were placed in buckets to clean their cages. That was the last time she could have physically been with a male python.
The snake also laid a clutch of eggs in 2009, but none hatched. Of the 7 eggs produced this time, 3 are still viable & are being incubated.
Genetic testing will show whether or not the eggs were produced asexually or with stored semen. The results should come back in about a month – around the same time the other eggs will hatch if they survive.
'If they continue to live & continue to develop, we expect hatching to be in the next 2 to 3 weeks,' Wanner said. 'We’ve got our fingers crossed that one of these animals will hatch, but we don’t know for sure.'
By Bil Browning
Sept. 18/2020
Cute Critter Pics:
No comments:
Post a Comment