POST-DISPATCH (St Louis, Missouri) 08 March 06 Two-headed snake will remain in St. Louis (Elizabethe Holland)
We, St. Louis’ internationally recognized albino two-headed black rat snake, won’t be leaving town after all. The World Aquarium downtown had hoped to sell the rare snake for $150,000 during or after an Internet auction in January, but of two offers made, both were under $50,000, said aquarium president Leonard Sonnenschein.
That’s not bad news, though, he insists. Rather, it will mean a new display for We — whose popularity has grown greatly since the auction — and the possibility of the snake starting a family in her hometown.
The aquarium, on the second floor of the City Museum, had put the snake up for sale in a weeklong Internet auction in hopes of raising at least $150,000 for educational, research and other programs. When the auction ended without a bid, Sonnenschein figured she would be sold to another aquarium or a private business.
But neither could come close to what Sonnenschein felt was the snake’s fair market value. Though the aquarium purchased the snake days after its birth for $15,000, she is now 6 1/2 years old, of breeding age and is expected to live another 10 to 15 years.
She’s expected to spend that time, and raise any wee We’s, where she has spent her formative years.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/8782E01FE53CAECC8625712B00815644?OpenDocument
