Slithering from an egg into an uncertain future

A University of Central Florida biologist says a rare, two-headed albino milk snake was recently born.

The reptile (Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis), bearing fluorescent orange markings, hatched at a facility in Lakeland last week, field biologist Daniel Park said.

The harmless, non-venomous snake is still so young that "it hasn't even shed its skin for the first time," Park said. Usually, snakes shed their skin about a week after birth.

Park, who also runs a breeding and tour company called Sunshine Serpents, said the egg bore no signs that its contents would include the two-headed snake -- or that the odd young reptile would survive.

"The mother had produced eggs in the past that had a two-headed baby and Siamese twins in past clutches," Park said. The earlier unusual babies died before hatching.

He already knew that the snake would be an albino because both of its parents also have albinism, Park said.

The latest clutch included the two-headed snake and twins.

"I joke that I got nine heads out of seven eggs," Park said.

Two-headed snakes have been known to survive more than 20 years in captivity, but are unlikely ever to be able to live in the wild.

"It's got two brains that are sending different signals to the same body," Park said. "When you hold it, you can see one head wants to go one direction and another head wants to go another, so it would lack some basic survival skills."

Milk snakes, named because of the myth that the snakes drink milk from cows' udders, can be found throughout the western hemisphere. Although Park's new two-headed snake is native to Honduras, there is a subspecies of milk snakes native to the Sunshine State, he said.

The new hatchling hasn't been completely examined yet, so it's too soon to determine whether it has any serious health or structural problems.

"This one is just a special one," Park said.