30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
A Berkeley pet store hatched a rare two-headed snake. That was the easy part
When East Bay Vivarium employees Angel Hamilton and Ezekiel White discovered a newly hatched California kingsnake last September, the fledgling reptile had an unexpected genetic twist: two heads.
The mood was a blast of elation, followed by a heavy dose of pessimistic doom.
'Our boss said, 'Take all the pictures you can, because it's probably going to die,'' Hamilton remembered.
Two-headed reptiles are uncommon in nature — about a 1-in-100,000 shot. The chances of survival are even more slim. Staff at the 55-year-old Berkeley reptile store thought the animal would last minutes, hours or days.
But seven months later, the shiny, striped, black-and-white snake, with heads named Angel and Zeke after the workers who found it, seems to be thriving. It is more than a foot long, devours a baby mouse every Tuesday and is developing a budding social media stardom. X-rays suggest the snake(s) could live a full life, growing to four feet and surviving a quarter century or more.
'We now know that he has a functioning digestive system,' White said. 'With a little luck and without unforeseen challenges, he should live many years.'
Reptiles, like mammals, sometimes birth conjoined twins. Michigan reptile breeder and YouTuber Brian Barczyk, who died last year, featured frequent videos with his two-headed kingsnakes named Ben and Jerry. A Mississippi breeder has a two-headed turtle named Chop and Stick.
The California Academy of Science once featured a pair of two-headed snakes: a garter snake that died after a few years in the 1960s, and a gopher snake that lived 22 years from the 1970s to 1990s.
But they rarely survive that long. Vivarium owner John Emberton has seen two-headed baby ball pythons, tortoises and geckos in his 35 years at the store, where hundreds of colorful snakes are hatched every year. None have lived more than a few days. The store kept Angel/Zeke under wraps for six months, before sharing an Instagram reel of the snake feeding on March 30.
On a recent Tuesday feeding day, the animal seemed to be thriving, if a bit drunk. Both black tongues flicker as they navigate their habitat, slithering quickly, but often getting trapped as a stick or leaf gets caught in the fork between their heads.
White described the snake's personalities as 'clumsy but fearless.'
'The way you set up the environment has to be a little bit simpler,' said the Vivarium's Alex Blanchard. 'They are occasionally fighting over where to go. You don't want them to get stuck, when they're not on the same page.'
Both heads have brains that process information separately. But during a feeding, the right head takes charge, biting a small pink mouse until it stops moving, then swallowing the extra-large meal in its unhinged jaw. While Angel and Zeke have longer 'necks' than Ben and Jerry or the Cal Academy snakes, X-rays suggest they share a single heart, lung and digestive system — a good sign for survival.
White and Hamilton have a running spirited debate whether the dominant head is Angel or Zeke. But the left head has shown interest in food, and could start eating as an adult snake.
Emberton said Angel/Zeke are still in the 'wait and see' stage. If the snake reaches a year old, the Vivarium will consider selling, likely to a zoo or museum. Barczyk said he had offers for $50,000 for Ben and Jerry, but Emberton said that's likely very high. The left head is smaller with one diminished eye, and Angel/Zeke have a visible knot where their spines join, which could lessen their value.
But for Vivarium workers, mere survival makes Angel/Zeke the best two-headed snake they could ask for.
'We've had plenty of things hatch that look perfect and didn't make it anyway,' Emberton said. 'Will it last five minutes or 30 years? You never know.'
