Video of Snake Giving Birth to Live Young Ones

Story:

Unbelievable normally Snake lay eggs yeah But this snake giving live birth.

Other Versions

1. Snake Giving Birth To Babies | Rare Video | Exclusive Video.

2. Caught on camera: anaconda gives birth to live snakes!

Picture of Video of Snake Giving Birth to Live Young Ones — Video of Snake Giving Birth to Live Young Ones

Analysis:

An exclusive video that has gone viral on social media claims to show a ‘miracle’ where an Anaconda Snake gives birth to live young ones, against the common norm that snakes reproduce by laying eggs. The video and the incident showing the snake giving birth to live young ones are facts. Not all snakes lay eggs as detailed below.

About the Video Showing Snake Giving Live Birth

The video in question appeared on 2 Aug 2015 in the YouTube channel of ABN Telugu news channel and has soon garnered more than million views. The video comes with a description saying it is a rare and exclusive incident, where a Snake is seen giving birth to babies – nearly 18 baby snakes in less than a minute. According to the Zee News report on zeenews.india.com and the Hindi language heard in the video, the snake giving birth to babies incident appears to have occurred in a village in New Delhi of India. We can see in the video how the mother snake searches for a safe spot to give birth, and moments later, small little tails and heads come out from a spot near the edge of the mother’s tail. At one point, you can see 3 snakes coming out of their mother’s body and they all crawl away after the birth. If you are still not convinced that some snakes do give birth to live babies, in the video below you can watch an Emerald tree boa snake giving live birth to young ones.

Do All Snakes Lay Eggs?

No, not all snakes lay eggs, most snakes, about 70 percent in the world do that, the rest give birth to live young ones. As a matter of fact, there are three distinct methods of reproduction in case of Snakes, as described below:

Oviparous

Oviparous snakes lay eggs and tend to live in warmer climates as it helps incubate their eggs. About 70% of the snakes in the world are oviparous. Cobras, adders, mambas, rat snakes, grass snakes, king snakes, taipans, and other “common” species belong to this category.

Viviparous

Viviparous snakes give birth to live young ones and tend to live in cooler regions, where the cold ground does not help the eggs to develop on their own. Viviparous snakes nourish their developing young through a placenta and yolk sac inside their bodies, and no eggs are involved at any stage of development. This is something that is highly unusual among reptiles. Examples of viviparous snakes are Boa constrictors and green anacondas.

Ovoviviparous

Ovoviviparous is like a “cross” between Oviparous (egg-laying) and Viviparous (live-birthing) snakes. Ovoviviparous snakes develop eggs inside their bodies, but they are retained inside for hatching, before the baby snakes emerge out fully active, without any shell. Rattlesnakes are ovoviviparous.

Most vipers, sea snake species and all of the rattlesnakes give birth to live young ones. And interestingly, the babies born are completely on their own from day one, without any parental protection in the snake world. On the contrary, in case of Oviparous egg-laying snakes, the highly venomous female king cobra is known to be a good parent, as it builds a nest for her eggs, and even stays with the hatchlings for a while after they are born.