Snakes-winners of beauty contest procreate offsprings

Last year the zoo-exotarium in Tula (a regional centre not far from Moscow), one of the world's largest reptile zoos, held a beauty contest between snakes. Zoo visitors were to choose the winner. The Californian King Snake (albino), raised at the Tula zoo-exotarium, was acknowledged the Queen of the Year /white snakes are uncommon in nature/. Recently the queen procreated offsprings.

This is not the first royal posterity, procreated at the Tula zoo: the winner of the beauty contest has already given birth to about 50 princes and princesses over the last 18 months, with some 10 of them also having the white colour. The queen's offsprings are sent to different zoos in exchange for other animals.

This exchange did a favour to another winner of the snake beauty contest in the category "Mister Photo Model". The Sunda Coryphondon, originating from South Asia, spent many years in the Tula zoo in complete loneliness. This snake looks like a cobra, but is not so poisonous. It is often called "cobra's husband", but in spite of this nickname, the winner of the snake beauty contest needed a girlfriend of the same species.

Mister Photo Model much suffered from total loneliness. Finally, a female was exchanged for him in Indonesia in 2002. The coryphondon was so happy that climbed to the ceiling of his terrarium and treated his wife with frogs, his favourite delicacy. This heavenly joy gave a perfect result: recently coryphondons have got the first laying of five eggs. Nobody knows, when little snakes will hatch. Coryphondons have never procreated offspings in a zoo before.