A group of tentacled snakes has been born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo for the first time in a decade.
According to the Mother Nature Network the aquatic species from southeast Asia are the only snakes with two short tentacles on their snouts, which allow the reptiles to sense vibrations from fish that swim by.
The tentacled snakes also develop at an astonishingly fast rate, which staff at the zoo in Washington, D.C., witnessed firsthand.
“Within a few hours of being born, the snakes were already acting like adults,” Matt Evans, a keeper at the Smithsonian’s Reptile Discovery Center, said in a statement. “Instincts took over and they were hunting. We don’t know much about this cryptic species, but we’re already learning so much just watching them grow.”
