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'Ronaldo had been looking slightly fatter than usual': Snake thought to be male has 14 babies in rare 'virgin birth'

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A captive snake thought to be male recently gave birth to 14 babies after almost a decade in isolation, its keepers say. 

The 13-year-old Brazilian rainbow boa (Epicrates cenchria), named Ronaldo, has not been in contact with any other snake for at least nine years. Ronaldo was a rescue snake that a vet had previously identified as a male. 

"One of the students discovered them during a routine vivarium check," Amanda McLeod, an animal care technician at the City of Portsmouth College in the U.K., where the snake is kept, said in a statement Monday (June 24). "At first we thought she must have been mistaken. We couldn't believe our eyes!"

This is the third  "virgin birth" recorded in a Brazilian rainbow boa. 

"Ronaldo had been looking slightly fatter than usual, like he'd eaten a big meal, but we never thought for a moment that he, or should we say she, was pregnant," Pete Quinlan, a reptile specialist at the college, said in the statement. 

Related: 8 animals that have virgin births

Virgin birth, known as parthenogenesis, is a type of asexual reproduction that takes place in a species that normally reproduces sexually. While rare, it's been recorded in several species in captivity, including birds, sharks, lizards, other snake species and a crocodile. 

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