"We" the 2-headed snake's long odd life ends

A two-headed snake named “We,” the main attraction at the World Aquarium, has died.

The 8-year-old rat snake died of natural causes during the weekend, said caretaker Leonard Sonnenschein. Most two-headed snakes survive for only a week or two.

“It’s terrible news,” Sonnenschein said. “People come in every day and say: ’I’m here to see the two-headed snake.'"

Sonnenschein said more than a million people have seen We over the years. Children were especially fascinated by the snake, wondering how two heads could coexist on the same body as We sometimes strained to slither in two directions at once.

“These kinds of questions helped spur the science spirit in children,” Sonnenschein said. Sonnenschein said he bought We from a snake breeder in Indiana for $15,000 when the reptile was just a few weeks old...

--MSNBC

Man tries to smuggle 700 snakes on plane

Customs officers at Cairo's airport on Thursday detained a man bound for Saudi Arabia who was trying to smuggle 700 live snakes on a plane, airport authorities said.

The officers were stunned when a passenger, identified as Yahia Rahim Tulba, after being asked to open his carryon bag, told them it contained live snakes.

Tulba opened his bag to show the snakes to the police and asked the officers, who held a safe distance, not to come close. Among the various snakes, hidden in small cloth sacks, were two poisonous cobras...

--USA Today

Snakes invade Nepal Maoist camps, rattle leader

Hundreds of snakes have invaded camps housing Nepal's former Maoist fighters, infuriating their top leader, the state-run RSS news agency said Wednesday.

Maoist chief Prachanda accused the government of ignoring the maintenance of the camps, set up under a peace deal in November that ended a decade-old civil war in which thousands of people died.

"More than 700 snakes have been killed in a cantonment," RSS quoted Prachanda as saying...

--Reuters