For the second consecutive year, a female yellow-bellied watersnake at the Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center in Missouri managed to birth offspring without the help of a male.
According to The Washington Post, officials with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) believe the snake is the first of its species to perform such a "virgin birth," officially known as parthenogenesis. Jordi Brostoski, a naturalist with the MDC, told the newspaper virgin birthing is not well documented with snakes and is more common among insects.
An intern named Kyle Morton first noticed the snake's membranes in its cages during a routine check. Morton did not even know what he was looking at upon first glance, and thought it was some sort of joke.
"I thought, 'what joker put tomatoes in here for the snake'," he said in an MDC news release. "She had acted normal, other than not eating for several weeks.
"So it definitely took me by surprise."
Brostoski had a similar reaction last summer, the first time it happened with this particular snake.
"At first I thought the snake had regurgitated something until I looked at it closer," the MDC naturalist said in the release. "That's when I realized what had happened and then the hatchling snakes surprised me by slithering under the bedding in the cage."
Jeff Briggler, a herpetologist with the MDC, said parthenogenesis occurs when a female produces something like sperm to fertilize its eggs. Briggler also said he could rule out sperm storage, since the snake had been in the Center's care for eight years.
"For many years, it was believed that such birth in captivity was due to sperm storage," he said in the release. "However, genetics is proving a different story."
