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Date: May 26, 2019 06:46AM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/05/24/anna-anaconda-got-pregnant-all-by-herself-by-virgin-birth/Staffers at the New England Aquarium last winter were setting up for an after-hours event near the Amazon rain forest exhibit when they made an unexpected discovery.
Anna the anaconda — 30 pounds, 8 years old and 10 feet long — had given birth to a litter of baby snakes.
Aquarium staff notified the resident biologist, who scrambled into the tank and found three live babies and about a dozen stillborn.
On its face, anaconda birth isn’t unusual. Anaconda have no trouble reproducing in aquarium settings, and the snakes living in this Amazon exhibit were no exception. If left to freely breed, green anaconda like Anna can have dozens of babies at a time, which is precisely why staffers at this Boston aquarium had taken great care to keep male and female snakes in separate tanks.
By design, Anna’s roommates were all female. She had no contact with males.