A 62-year-old python at the Saint Louis Zoo has laid 7 eggs despite not having been close to a male in the past 15 years
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
A 62-year-old python at the Saint Louis Zoo has laid 7 eggs despite not having been close to a male in the past 15 years. A mystery is intriguing scientists around the world.
The poor animal, which unfortunately has spent most of its life in a zoo, is the oldest snake in captivity and doesn't even have a name. It was a man who brought him to the Saint Louis zoo in 1961. To identify him today, the sad code 361003 is used. Apparently, the elderly python hasn't seen a male specimen for almost two decades but the snake laid last July 7 eggs. To give the news in these days was the same zoo, who wrote in the official blog:
“On July 23, something incredible happened to Herpetarian Charles H. Hoessle at the Saint Louis Zoo: a ball python laid its eggs! It might not sound too thrilling to some, but for our staff it sure was. This particular female snake is over 50 years old (the oldest documented snake in a zoo) and she hasn't been with a male in over 15 years! "
Ball pythons or royal pythons, native to Central and West Africa, are known for both sexual and asexual reproduction, the so-called facultative parthenogenesis.
But according to zoological park experts, these creatures are also capable of storing sperm and having delayed fertilization. It is not yet known what happened but the eggs have been incubated.
Scientists are also intrigued by the fact that ball pythons usually stop laying eggs long before they reach the age of 60.
One thing is certain: the python is certainly the oldest snake to have spawned, or at least the oldest snake ever documented in a zoo.
Three of the eggs are still in the incubator, two were used for genetic sampling, and the snakes in the other two eggs didn't make it.
Sources of reference: Stlzoo
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