Two-Headed Snake on Display in Ukraine Zoo

Visitors to the 'Skazka' zoo in the Crimean city of Yalta marvelled at a two-headed snake which went on display in the snake-house this week.

The cream-coloured albino California Kingsnake has two heads, each with a pair of pink eyes and a flickering forked tongue. The two heads react differently and eat separately, but one is less important than the other.

[Dmytro Tkachov, Chief Keeper at the Snake-House]:
"One head has to be isolated with a special spatula so that the second head does not block its swallowing. One head is the main head, and the second is subordinate – it's the same with all these 'dragons'."

Zoo owner Oleg Zubkov takes his new sensation out from time to time and gets it used to a human touch, though most visitors prefer to stay safely on the other side of its glass cage.

The snake, which does not have a name, will be on display to visitors in the zoo until mid-September, the end of the tourist season in the Crimea.