POST-DISPATCH (St Louis, Missouri) 15 August 06 Two-headed snakes may make Guinness book (Elizabethe Holland)
Fred Lally displays a two headed albino rat snake on Wednesday that he will be displaying at Taste of Summer though out the rest of the week.
With regard to snakes, there are Guinness World Records for the heaviest living snake, longest fangs and even one for sitting in a bathtub with the most live rattlesnakes.
In regard to multiple heads, there are Guinness records for the most heads of state together, most heads shaved in four hours and the most consecutive haircuts given in a day.
But a record that combines snakes and multiple heads? A record, say, for the largest exhibit of two-headed animals?
Not yet . . . but coming soon to an aquarium near you. Advertisement
Though the vaunted Guinness Book of World Records lists no such record now, the World Aquarium at the City Museum near downtown St. Louis hopes to change that with an exhibit starting Tuesday next week and running through Sept. 5. The exhibit will feature We - the aquarium's rare albino two-headed black rat snake - and nine other two-headed snakes and turtles owned by Fred Lally of West Fork, Ark.
Aquarium president Leonard Sonnenschein is hoping a local reptile dealer with a two-headed snake also will join the exhibit, which would boost the head count to 22.
"It should be a huge two-headed party," Sonnenschein said Tuesday.
Although that in itself might be enough for most, the two-week celebration of manifold snake and turtle noggins offers yet another great possibility, according to Sonnenschein. One of the visitors is a two-headed albino black rat snake named Golden Girls that Sonnenschein hopes will mate with We.
"There are no guarantees," he said, "but it's very likely these two could mate and have babies."
In January, the aquarium attempted to sell We for $150,000 in an Internet auction, but there were no bidders. Two offers that came later were both under $50,000, so the aquarium scrapped that plan and decided it would breed the popular snake instead.
Breeding We hasn't been the easiest of propositions, however. Sonnenschein believes We is two different snakes - fraternal twins - in one body and that it's a hermaphrodite. The aquarium had We undergo a procedure earlier this year in an attempt to surgically determine its gender. The procedure suggested We could be female.
Sonnenschein still questions We's gender, though, and believes the snake may be male, as it is not very thick. Golden Girls is thicker than We, suggesting Golden Girls may be female, Sonnenschein said.
In any case, the snakes will have a two-week honeymoon that Sonnenschein hopes will breed another two-headed snake.
If no babies are created, the aquarium still will have its shot at creating a world record. An acceptance letter that Sonnenschein said came from London-based Guinness World Records says Guinness is interested in the record proposal and has created a category dubbed "Largest Exhibit of Two-headed Animals."
Lally, owner of nine of the two-headed animals, likes the idea of a world record. Lally, 65, and his wife spend several months a year traveling with Golden Girls; their Western Diamondback rattlesnake named Double Trouble; and their seven red ear slider turtles - Wild Ones, Ms. Hazel, Zip & Pip, Lyndon, Crooked Shell, Short Neck and Baby Gill.
They most often show the animals at fairs and festivals. But a world record could mean invitations from malls, which means air conditioning instead of steamy fairgrounds and hot asphalt parking lots at convention centers, Lally said.
"I'd much rather make up (a display) that could go inside malls," he said.
The City Museum is at 701 North 15th Street.
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