Missouri – A female water snake at Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center has managed to give birth for the second year after being in captivity for eight years and having no contact with males of her species.
The snake’s virgin birth is a process of asexual reproduction called parthenogenesis, in which females produce babies without any genetic contribution from males. In parthenogenesis, the mature egg is fertilized by a sister cell, known as a polar body, that contains an identical set of chromosomes. A polar body functions almost like sperm and fertilizes an egg.