A snake has been filmed giving birth to 11 tiny babies in a rare case of reptilian live birth.
Northern Colorado Wildlife Center, a rehabilitation zoo, shared the video of one of its snakes pushing out live young.
"Sometimes, when we help one animal, we end up helping many. One of our current plains garter snake patients became a mother today to 11 adorable, slithering, babies!" said the Northern Colorado Wildlife Center in the caption alongside the video.
"Garter snakes typically have between 10 to 40 babies at a time so while a tad on the smaller side, her 11 are within the normal range," it continued.
While most snakes are oviparous, laying large clutches of leathery eggs, some species are known to be viviparous, undergoing live births instead.
Snake species that lay eggs include garter snakes, water snakes, most vipers, boas, sea snakes and death adders.
All snake species reproduce via internal fertilization, meaning that the male's sperm is inserted inside the female's reproductive tract, where they fuse to form an embryo.
Egg-laying species of snakes develop the eggs inside their bodies, slowly coating the embryos and their nutrient-filled yolk sacs with a layer of calcium, similar to birds. After laying her eggs, the mother may incubate her clutch and look after her nest, or abandon the nest and leave her young to their own devices, depending on the species.
Pythons, for example, coil around their eggs and have even been seen to shiver their bodies to warm the eggs.
Viviparous snakes, on the other hand, don't develop egg shells, instead feeding their internal young via both placenta and yolk sac nutrition. True viviparity is hard to distinguish from another, rarer approach called ovoviviparity, which is where eggs do develop inside the mother, but hatch before the babies are born. In both cases, young are born coated in only an embryonic sac.
Viviparity is a rare trait across reptiles, with National Geographic estimating that only around 15 to 20 percent of the roughly 9,000 total species of snakes and lizards are viviparous. It is thought that live births are associated with snake species that reside in colder environments where the temperatures are too low for eggs to survive outside the mother's body.
The plains garter snake, which is the species giving birth in the video, is truly viviparous, and is found across the U.S. The breed has been found as far north as central Alberta, Canada, where temperatures can fall to the low 20s in the winter.
The mother snake in the video was found by a family in Fort Collins with lacerations to her face and neck, possibly from a lawn mower accident.
"She's healing well from her injuries and she, along with all of her babies, will be released in a few weeks time!" said the Northern Colorado Wildlife Center in a comment under the video.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Jess Thomson is a Newsweek Science Reporter based in London UK. Her focus is reporting on science, technology and healthcare. ... Read more
