September 3, 2009

Conjoined twin rattlesnakes were found near Tucson, Ariz., and underwent separation surgery at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum on Friday, August 28. (ZT Pet News Photo)

Conjoined Twin Rattlesnakes Separated by Surgery: Born in the wild, the pair of female Western Diamond backs would have died quickly but instead they were given a second chance for life when a Good Samaritan took them to a wildlife center in Arizona.

NEW YORK -- Rattlesnakes in the deserts of Arizona are nothing new, but two baby Western Diamondbacks were a rare find on a construction site a couple weeks ago near Tucson, Ariz.

"I don't know the statistical chances but I have been at the museum for 25 years and this is the first time anyone has ever called us on such a thing," said Craig Ivanyi, executive director for living collections and exhibits at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

The snakes were conjoined twins, just days old when they were brought to the museum for help.

"We took an X-ray when we first received them and it appeared that they only shared soft tissue," Ivanyi said of the snakes conjoined behind the head and neck area. "But as they did they surgery there was a slight amount of vertebra and bony material shared between the two."

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Reptile and amphibian specialist, Jim Jarchow, DVM, performed the surgery on Friday, August 28. According to Ivanyi, the snakes' surgery was a first for Jarchow, who, in a similar procedure, has separated conjoined tortoises in his more than 30 year career.

"One was obviously dominant and the more subordinate one died sometime overnight and was found Saturday morning," said Ivanyi. "The other one appears to be doing well."

Without the surgery, Ivanyi says the pair would not have survived long in the wild.

"Twin snakes usually share one yolk sack and because they share all the nutrients, the weaker one was already going down this road before surgery," Ivanyi explained. "So it wasn't the surgery, it was the lack of nutrition.

"The smaller one would have died along this time table, but then, of course, with it being attached to the other one, it would have killed it as well."

Believed to be a set of female twins, the surviving twin is now doing well, although it could take several weeks to months for the rattlesnake to grow enough for a definite full recovery.

If she recovers fully, then the museum, Ivanyi says, will continue to tell her story and include her in an exhibit. But she will remain nameless.

"Normally we don't name animals here, especially reptiles because there is a fairly extensive collection," Ivanyi said of the museum's 100 species of various reptiles which equals hundreds of individual creatures.

If it sounds peculiar for a snake to be at a museum, that would be an understandable. However, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, as Ivanyi describes it, is "a living museum, a museum, zoo, aquarium, botanical park and natural history museum all wrapped into one. And because of the living museum focus we have, we have two staff vets that come out on rounds every week and a complete hospital."

As for the hundreds of species, Ivanyi says "some for educational display, others are breeding programs -- such as a small refuge population or one species which might be released back into the wild because there are so few of them out there."

The conjoined twin reptiles are one of many stories of animals being brought to the facility, says Ivanyi of the museum which does turn away exotic species, such as Burmese pythons or African tortoises.

But thanks to the rattlesnakes, the public is more aware of the work the museum is doing.

"Most people have been very fascinate by it, the fact of conjoined twins and then the surgical separation of them," Ivanyi said. "There's been a lot of supporters for taking on these animals."

Although the attention has come with some naysayers.

"There are those who are concerned about why we spent money to do this," Ivanyi said of the snakes' surgery. "But we are a complete non-profit organization, and it was within the normal rounds (of Dr. Jarchow) and it was our own hospital so there virtually was no costs in doing this surgery."

Robin Wallace is the editor for Zootoo Pet News and can be reached at rwallace@zootoo.com.

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