Mating mystery: Python laid eggs without being near male for decade, St. Louis Zoo says
Experts at the St. Louis Zoo were astonished after a 62-year-old ball python laid seven eggs — seemingly without male help.
In fact, zoo keepers said the snake hasn’t been near a male python in more than 15 years.
“She’d definitely be the oldest snake we know of in history,” to lay eggs, Mark Wanner, manager at herpetology at the zoo, told the St. Louis Post Dispatch. She’s also “the oldest snake ever documented” at a zoo, he said.
The python laid her eggs this summer on July 23, according a post on the zoo’s Facebook page. Experts said it’s not unusual for the reptiles to reproduce asexually, also known as facultative parthenogenesis. Snakes can also “store sperm for delayed fertilization,” the zoo said.
Now, zoo keepers have been left to solve this mating mystery.
“Without genetic testing, Zoo staff won’t know if this ball python reproduced sexually or asexually, but they intend to find out,” zoo officials said. “As the keepers continue to incubate the eggs, they will be sending off samples for genetic testing.”
For now, three of the pythons eggs remain in an incubator in another part of the zoo’s herpetarium while two other eggs were selected for genetic testing, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported. Snakes in the two remaining eggs didn’t survive.
The eggs that survived are expected to hatch in a month, zoo officials said, according to the Post-Dispatch.
Animal lovers flocked to the zoo’s Facebook page to express their excitement over the “incredible” event. The zoo’s post received thousands of comments and nearly 4,500 shares as of Sept. 11.
“I didn’t know this about Ball pythons!” one user commented. “I love them more now.”
“Sweet, I love snakes,” another wrote. “Let the new generation be hatched.”
Ball pythons are native to Western and central Africa, and get its name “from its habit of curling into a ball when it feels threatened,” according to the zoo’s website. It’s one of the smaller python varieties, reaching about five feet in length.
This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 10:16 AM.