Ronaldo, a 6-foot Brazilian rainbow boa kept at a school in England, was thought to be male — until the snake gave birth to 14 babies last month.
The boa has not had contact with another snake for almost a decade, so it appears to have undergone a natural process of asexual reproduction called parthenogenesis. The term is derived from the Greek words for “virgin birth.”
The school said this is the third documented case of this type of birth known to a Brazilian rainbow boa in captivity.
Ronaldo lives at the City of Portsmouth College, an academic and vocational school for 16 to 18 year olds in the south of England, where the snake is used to help train students in how to care for animals.
“I got a call from a colleague of mine asking why I released some small snakes with Ronaldo,” said Pete Quinlan, an animal technician at the college who has been caring for the snake for nine years.
Quinlan said his initial thought that day, June 21, was that there had been a mistake. Although it was his day off, Quinlan walked in and immediately recognized that the snakes with Ronaldo were baby rainbow boas.
“I was completely intrigued by it,” he said, noting that he has worked with reptiles for more than 50 years.
“I kept literally thousands of snakes in that period and I also raised a lot of snakes,” Quinlan added. “I’ve never heard of that before.”
In a press release, the college described the event as a “miraculous birth”, although some snakes and other animals – including crocodiles and bees – are known to produce offspring asexually.
Parthenogenesis occurs when an embryo develops without being fertilized. The process is especially rare for vertebratesincluding snakes.
Unlike sexual reproduction, which requires sperm to fertilize an egg, parthenogenesis may involve byproducts of the process that creates eggs, called polar bodies, which are used to fill this gap. These cells are combined again into eggs, giving the embryos two similar – but not identical – sets of DNA.
Parthenogenesis can also occur when sex cells duplicate and then merge again; this process creates clones of the mother, although it occurs mainly in plants, not animals.
Researchers are still investigating why parthenogenesis occurs in animals and how frequently.
Quinlan said some researchers believe snakes undergo parthenogenesis when females do not have a mate for most of their lives.
In recent years, several other reports of animals reproducing asexually in captivity have emerged. Last year, a shark at Brookfield Zoo in Illinois, gave birth to a pup via parthenogenesis after not having contact with a male shark for at least four years. It is a 2021 Study found that California condors, a critically endangered bird species, reproduced asexually in captivity even though they had access to mates.
A stingray named Charlotte, who became pregnant through parthenogenesis in an aquarium in North Carolina, died on Sunday. The aquarium announced last month that the stingray – whose story even became the subject of a “Saturday Night Live” sketch – was no longer pregnant and had been diagnosed with a rare disease.
Quinlan said he initially got Ronaldo from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a charity that supports animal welfare. A veterinarian said Ronaldo was male and Quinlan never questioned it. It’s more difficult to determine a snake’s sex when it’s an adult than when it’s a baby, he said.
Ronaldo is a “very popular snake” at the school, Quinlan said, adding that the students had never taken care of newborn snakes before, so this should be a “really good experience” for them.
Evie Allen, a college student who works with Ronaldo, said she was “shocked” and “confused” when a friend told her the snake had given birth.
“I really thought he was joking,” she said.
The college plans to keep one or two baby snakes and care for the rest until they have had a few meals and are healthy enough to go to new homes.
Ronaldo’s story attracted attention around the world.
“I didn’t expect it to go so viral,” said Paula Hetherington, the college’s marketing and communications manager.
“If you Google Ronaldo the snake right now, it seems to be more popular than Ronaldo the football player,” Quinlan said.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
