Hot Take: Meet the 'two-headed' snake, a master of disguise

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Hey folks, guess what? Recently, a weird little undocumented snake was discovered in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It has a nickname called Guangxi Two-headed Snake, but don't worry, it's not a monster. Welcome to Hot Take. I'm Xiaopeng.

[00:00:17]Scientifically, the snake named Calamaria credibilis is tiny, only about 22 cm long, non-venomous, and low-tempered. Its brown back is marked with seven broken dark stripes. Well, dark edge scales create a distinctive net-like pattern.

[00:00:34]During the day, it hides under leaves or loose soil, and comes out at night to snack on earthworms and insect larvae.

[00:00:41]So, why two-headed? When it gets scared, it curls into a figure eight shape, and it leaves its brown tail pretending as a second head. This little snake is a big deal. It is the second new species found this year in Guangxi Huaping Nature Reserve. The finding enriches China's reptile and amphibian species records, and offers new materials for research into the evolution of the Calamaria genus, and it shows that China's biodiversity is doing well. Nature always surprises us.