A Brazilian rainbow boa has unexpectedly given birth to 14 baby snakes. It was thought to be male and had not had contact with other snakes for nine years.
A Brazilian rainbow boa named Ronaldo is causing a stir in Great Britain. As The Guardian reports, the snake, which has had no contact with other snakes for nine years and was actually identified as a male by a vet, has inexplicably given birth to 14 baby snakes.
Staff at Portsmouth College, where Ronaldo lives, called the birth a “miracle,” but from a scientific point of view the most likely explanation is parthenogenesis – a form of virgin birth in which embryos are created without fertilization.
Pete Quinlan, a reptile specialist who has been breeding snakes for 50 years, was also surprised. “The babies are essentially clones of their mother, although their markings are slightly different,” he told the Guardian.
Ronaldo was a popular resident of the college and was adopted by the RSPCA animal welfare organization nine years ago.
Following the unexpected birth, Quinlan and his team are now busy determining the sex of the baby snakes and setting up new enclosures for them. Once the snakes have matured sufficiently, they will be moved to a new home.
Parthenogenesis is a process of asexual reproduction in which an individual can produce offspring without the involvement of male gametes (sperm) for fertilization. In parthenogenesis, egg cells develop into a new organism without fertilization occurring.
This phenomenon occurs in some plants, many invertebrates (such as certain species of insects, arachnids and worms) and some vertebrates (such as certain lizards, snakes and fish). In animals, parthenogenesis can occur in a variety of ways and involve different genetic mechanisms, such as automictic parthenogenesis, in which the egg cell duplicates its own DNA to replace the missing paternal chromosomes.
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