World's longest 11 year-old virgin python gives birth without contact with male

Eleven year-old python named Thelma, is the world’s longest snake according to records. It has recorded another by giving birth without coming in contact with any male.

The six metres (20ft) long reticulated python, scientists said, produced six female offspring at Louisville Zoo in Kentucky, USA without sperm from any male snake.

The birth happened in 2012 amidst doubts but a new DNA evidence published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society recently revealed that the 91kg snake "fathered and mothered" the offsprings by itself.

Curator of Ectotherms at the zoo, Bill McMahan told National Geographic that “We didn’t know what we were seeing. We had attributed it to stored sperm.

 “I guess sometimes truth is stranger than fiction”.

MailOnline also quotes McMahan as saying: “It is not uncommon for a snake to lay infertile eggs, so the staff was surprised when the eggs appeared to be full and healthy instead of shrunken and discolored shells - typical of infertile reptile eggs".

The report said, even though such births was not new, it was the first case of virgin birth in reticulated pythons.

The Linnean Society journal however described the process by which it was made possible as terminal fusion automixis, a process which causes parthenogenesis - the fatherless reproduction in animals that usually require two parents to produce offspring.

The study said it is caused when cells known as polar bodies – which are produced with an animal’s egg and usually die, behave like sperm and fuse with the egg, triggering cell division (Terminal fusion automixis).

The process has been observed in other animals like boa constrictors, birds and sharks.

While the scientists flaunt the theories, Metro UK quotes Mr McMahan as speculating that in Thelma’s case may have been triggered by ideal living conditions.

He said: “It takes a lot out of pythons to reproduce, and she had everything she needed. I had fed her a really big meal, 40lbs (about 18kg) of chicken”.

“She was living in an exhibit larger than the typical size. There were heat pads. Everything was optimal”.

Thelma lives with another female python named Louise and has not been in contact or company of a male for years.
Photographs by Kyle Shepherd, Louisville Zoo