Bidder-sweet goodbye: St. Louis aquarium to sell rare snake on eBay

ST. LOUIS -- For sale: One snake. Albino. Has two heads. Asking $150,000 or best offer.

The World Aquarium in St. Louis has been home to We, a one-of-a-kind two-headed albino rat snake, since 1999. President Leonard Sonnenschein has decided to sell the reptile, and bidding on eBay will start at $150,000.

"It's an amazing snake," Sonnenschein said Monday. "When people see it they are awe-struck."

The 6 1/2-year-old snake came to the aquarium's attention when its previous owner distributed a circular offering it for sale days after its birth. The aquarium paid $15,000, knowing that most two-headed snakes don't live more than a few months.

But We has survived and thrived. An inch thick and 4 feet long, she is a healthy size for a rat snake. While its body is white, the heads have a reddish appearance.

We has survived because, unlike some two-headed animals, both mouths are connected to the same stomach, Sonnenschein said.

Van Wallach of Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology said We should live an additional 10 to 15 years. And Sonnenschein said it's at a ripe age for breeding.

"We expect the sale of We to be on the same level of demand as a priceless art object," he said.

The snake has been in the spotlight before. In 2004, a disgruntled City Museum worker stole We. Authorities found the snake in the garage of the man's home in Illinois.

"He thought he was going to sell it," Sonnenschein said. "The thing is, it's the only one in the world."

Sonnenschein said the decision to sell We was a difficult one, "but somebody would probably like to have it more than us, and we can use the money for our education, conservation and research programs."

The organization donated more than 9,000 desktop aquariums to families and schools last year, works with students from more than 20 universities and high schools to promote understanding of the underwater world, and is involved in programs aimed at protecting against overfishing in the world's oceans.

The aquarium sits on the second floor of the City Museum, an eclectic St. Louis attraction that draws about 650,000 visitors each year.

Sonnenschein said We would make a great zoo attraction or could be purchased by the leaders of some foreign land where mythology surrounds two-headed snakes.

"We think it's a very valuable animal," he said.

Cape snake doing well

A two-headed snake donated to the Conservation Campus Nature Center in Cape Girardeau is doing fine, said Steve Juhlin, assistant manager at the nature center.

The black rat snake, born in the summer of 2005, is about a foot long, not much longer than it was when Delta 10-year-old Cody Kneir found the snake in a tree stump in his backyard. It eats with only one of its heads, he said. The snake is not on display, but is sometimes shown to children as part of reptile and amphibian programs, he said.

"We don't want to add trauma to its life," he said. "We don't want the glass being tapped on, the noises and the extra vibration. But as it gets older, we'll probably put it on display."

~ Conservation officials say the snake would not have survived in the wild.

News editor Bob Miller contributed to this report.