Watch: Two-headed copperhead gains viral celebrity status

A two-headed snake, which turned up in a Virginia backyard for visit last summer, slithered its way into viral celebrity status. The eastern copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) was born with dicephaly, a rare disorder in which animals are born with two heads — one often dominating the other. After it appeared in a woman’s backyard in Woodbridge, Va., the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries removed the reptile. Subsequent reports from national news organizations resulted in a flooding of calls to the agency, and a viper breeder eventually adopted the copperhead. The snake eventually died that winter — many serpents with dicephaly never survive birth (copperheads give live birth), and most others die within their first few months.

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