Virgin Birth: Yellow-Bellied Watersnake Has Babies Without Male Contact

Religious texts have talked of virgin births, but watersnakes, too? At Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center in Missouri, it might just have happened for the second time around in the yellow-bellied watersnake.

Researchers said the captive snake, which had no contact with a male snake for at least eight years, has managed to give birth again on her own this year, according to The Washington Post. 

"For many years, it was believed that such birth in captivity was due to sperm storage," MDC herpetologist Jeff Briggler, said in a news release. "However, genetics is proving a different story."While this kind of reproduction is seen in birds, insects and reptiles, it has only rarely been documented in snakes, including cottonmouths, copperheads and Burmese pythons.

Virgin birth, in this case, is scientifically referred to as parthenogensis, or asexual reproduction. It involves female production without any genetic contribution from males in which a polar body functions almost like sperm and fertilizes an egg.

While the two babies that the water snake gave birth to last year are still alive and doing well, none of the offspring she produced this year survived.

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