A professional snake catcher searching for den of rattlesnakes stumbled on a two-headed western diamondback rattlesnake near Arizona golf course.
© Rattlesnake SolutionsA professional snake catcher searching for den of rattlesnakes stumbled on a two-headed western diamondback rattlesnake near Arizona golf course. The snake, which died, has shaken social media.
Greyson Getty says he was following a western diamondback rattlesnake through a bush when he found himself suddenly staring down 11 rattlesnakes.

But things got even stranger for the professional snake catcher when he noticed a peculiar snake coiled by itself in one corner of the den.

It was a very large "baby" with two heads. And it appeared to have just died, he said.

"Once I pull it out of the hole, honestly, I lost my mind a little," Getty told McClatchy News. "The body of the snake seemed to be quite large and disproportionate compared to its siblings. It was just over double the size of a normal baby rattlesnake."

Western diamondback rattlesnakes are one of the nation's 10 most dangerous snakes, with a venom that causes "massive internal bleeding," Reptiles Magazine reports.

The two-headed snake was dead, but it has shaken social media in the week since Getty's employer, Rattlesnake Solutions, posted a photo. The disconcerting image shows a short, but very puffy young rattlesnake with two fully developed heads.

Among those sharing the photo have been Facebook groups devoted to snake research, UFOs and even dinosaurs.

"HOLY HELLLLLL, NO," Stephanie Tassone commented on the photo.

"2020 strikes again," Stacey Mantle wrote.

"Stuff of nightmares!" Sandy Compton Farmer posted.

Experts say there's not enough research to say exactly how rare it is to find a two-headed western diamondback in the wild, but multi-headed creatures of any kind are the stuff of mythology. (Think the many-headed Hydra or Cerberus, hell's guard dog.)

A 2019 article in The Guardian put the odds of any animal being born in the wild with multiple heads at around one in 100,000 live births.

Getty said he found the snake the morning of Aug. 16, as he searched for a rattlesnake den adjacent to a golf course. He found the den next to an irrigation drain and used a hook to pull out four adults and seven healthy babies. (One of the adults later gave birth in the bucket, so the total grew to 14.) All are being released back into the wild, he said.

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