JONESBORO, Ark. – A rare, two-headed rattlesnake surprised a man in Arkansas Wednesday, according to KFSM.
Rodney Kelso, an operations director at Woodruff Electric, was working on a home about three miles north of Forrest City when he stumbled across the venomous reptile, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
The snake is about 11 inches long and was found with two other snakes that looked normal. Kelso managed to get the rattlesnake into a box, which was taken to Forrest L. Wood Crowley's Ridge Nature Center in Jonesboro.
Cody Walker, an education specialist at the facility, said full grown timber snakes – the most venomous snake in Arkansas – can grow longer than four feet and be as wide as an adult human's arm.
A herpetologist from Arkansas State University's biology department is scheduled to stop at the nature center to take a look at the snake.
Two-headed snakes have short life spans, especially in the wild, Walker said. They are technically two snakes fused together, so with two brains making independent decisions they may not react fast enough when faced with predators.
When a snake embryo doesn't fully separate, it can result in a two-headed snake. It is unclear if both snakes both eat and digest food.
