Jun 25 2007
Two Headed Snake Dies!
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ST. LOUIS - A two-headed snake named “We,” the main attraction at the World Aquarium, has died.
The 8-year-old rat snake died of natural causes during the weekend, said caretaker Leonard Sonnenschein. Most two-headed snakes survive for only a week or two.
“It’s terrible news,” Sonnenschein said. “People come in every day and say: ’I’m here to see the two-headed snake.”’
Sonnenschein said more than a million people have seen We over the years. Children were especially fascinated by the snake, wondering how two heads could coexist on the same body as We sometimes strained to slither in two directions at once.
“These kinds of questions helped spur the science spirit in children,” Sonnenschein said.
Sonnenschein said he bought We from a snake breeder in Indiana for $15,000 when the reptile was just a few weeks old.A taxidermist is preserving We’s body, which should be back on display within a week, Sonnenschein said.
This saddens me beyond words. Snakes are such beautiful and misunderstood animals and to thinkt hat one so rare and beautiful as this one has passed on makes want to cry. I have never seen a double headed snake myself and would have loved to meet this one.
