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Even without contact with males for more than 15 years, a 62-year-old royal python laid seven eggs on July 23 at the St. Lous, Missouri, Zoo. According to the zoo, asexual reproduction in the species is rare, but not uncommon. Females also have the ability to store sperm from males for future use. The information is from CNN.
According to the zoo’s director of herpetology (the study of reptiles), Mark Wanner, the species usually stops laying eggs long before they reach 60. For Wanner, the snake “is definitely the oldest in history” to lay eggs.
Still, according to the zoo, of the seven eggs, two did not work, two were used for genetic research (which will tell if the reproduction was sexual or asexual). Another three remain in an incubator.
On July 23, an incredible thing happened at the Charles H. Hoessle Herpetarium at the Saint Louis Zoo – a ball python laid eggs! That may not sound very exciting to some, but to our Herpetarian staff it definitely was. This particular female snake is over 50 years old (the oldest documented snake in a zoo) and has not been with a male in over 15 years. Ball pythons, native to central and western Africa, are known to reproduce sexually and asexually, which is called facultative parthenogenesis. Snakes are also known to store sperm to delay fertilization. Now the question is, which of the two explanations is the reason for the eggs? Without genetic testing, zoo staff won’t know if this ball python reproduced sexually or asexually, but they intend to find out. As caregivers continue to incubate the eggs, they will send samples for genetic testing. #KeeperPerspective #BringTheStlZooToYou
Posted By Saint Louis Zoo on Thursday, September 3, 2020
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