Rare two-headed California kingsnake has already outlived every conjoined twin Berkeley experts have seen

A baby California kingsnake with two heads is drawing attention online after surviving far longer than expected.

According to staff at the East Bay Vivarium in Berkeley, California, as reported by Popular Science, the tiny snake has now lived for seven months.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by East Bay Vivarium (@theeastbayvivarium)

The unusual hatchling was born at the East Bay Vivarium, where staff pulled it from an incubator and realized they were looking not at one snake but at a conjoined twin: a white-and-black California kingsnake with two heads fused to one body.

Its age is what makes it especially unusual.

Vivarium owner Johnathan Emberton told Popular Science that the shop has seen various two-headed snakes, geckos, turtles, and tortoises over the decades, but none had lived this long.

Emberton said the second head is "definitely sentient," even if it appears to be "kind of along for the ride."

He told Popular Science that only the dominant head has eaten, while the other has shown some interest in food but has not fed.

Staff named the snake Zeke and Angel — in honor of the employees who pulled it from the incubator — though Emberton joked there is still "an ongoing contention about who's who."

Conjoined twins in reptiles are uncommon, and long-term survival is even rarer.

Emberton said many two-headed animals are born with duplicate organs that can compete with one another or put too much strain on the body. Popular Science reported that this snake appears to have one main functioning set of organs, with the second head not fully controlling any major systems.

This snake has survived in a carefully managed captive setting with an incubator, regular feeding, and close monitoring by experts. In the wild, an animal with this condition would likely face much steeper challenges from predators, missed meals, or difficulty shedding.

"It's very rare that you hatch one at all, and then it's extremely rare when they live," Emberton said.

Get TCD's free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.