5 headed Snakes - how the people are fooled using technology in INDIA

I was so surprised to see this picture when a friend of mine sent it to me. This is a snake found in a temple at Karnataka.

Looking like a creature from mythology, multi-headed animals occur in real life as conjoined or parasitic twins. It is not just in mythology that creatures are given to have two or more heads. This condition where an animal or human which has more than one head is termed as polycephaly caused due to developmental abnormality during gene mutation.

Many mythologies like Hindu, Chinese, Greek,etc has references to such a 5 headed snake in their epics. We have so far read about such a snake only in historic stories and epics . I'm sure it will be surprising to most of you as much as myself, to see such a rare species still being alive. This images are look like fake. Five Headed Cobra Hoax Images.

Outline

Circulating images supposedly depict a five-headed cobra found at Kukke Subrahmanya, a Hindu temple in the Indian state of Karnataka.

Brief Analysis:
The images do not show a real five-headed snake. Four of the images are in fact photographs of normal, one-headed snakes that have been altered in an image manipulation program to appear that the snakes are five-headed. One of the images may show a toy or model that has been staged for the photograph.

Detailed AnalysisMessages that are currently circulating via email, blogs, and social networking websites, claim that set of attached images depict a "rare" five-headed Cobra that was found at Kukke Subrahmanya, a Hindu temple located about 105 km from Mangalore in the state of Karnataka, in southern India. There are two main versions of the messages that contain a different set of five-headed snake images. Both versions claim that the snake was found at Kukke Subrahmanya.

However, none of the five-headed snake pictures are genuine. The three images contained in the first example shown above are in fact nothing more than digitally manipulated versions of a set of photographs that show a normal, one-headed cobra. The following photographs, which have been published on a number of websites, show the original source images used to create the fake five-headed snake images:

The original photographs were taken at a snake farm in Thailand in 2003 by blogger, Tien Chiu. I sent an email to Tien Chiu asking about the photographs and she responded that she indeed took the photographs but the snake was definitely not five-headed. It seems that someone has used Tien Chiu's photographs as the source images for the five-headed snake hoax without her permission or knowledge. The first image shown in the second example above is also clearly manipulated from a photograph of a normal one-headed cobra. The following close-up screenshot of the image shows how the snake's head in the original photograph was replicated and joined together to create the five-headed manipulation: The second image in the second example above, may also be a manipulated photograph. However, the strange colouration and shape of the "snake" suggest that it may actually be a model or a toy that has been placed in the water for the photograph. Moreover, although the message suggests that the two images show the same, five-headed snake, it is very clear that the second image does not depict the same snake that is shown in the first image.

Thus, the supposed five-headed snake shown in these images represent nothing more than the fairly amateurish "photoshopping" work of some unknown prankster. The hoax photographs have circulated widely in India, perhaps accelerated by the fact that a five-headed snake god known as Nagaraja is part of that nation's cultural and religious heritage. The occurrence of animals, including snakes, with more than one head is not uncommon. The condition is known as Polycephaly. However, while bicephalic (two-headed) or tricephalic (three headed) animals have been well-documented, there are no credible reports of animals with more than three heads. Animals with more than three heads abound in mythology, but do not exist in the real world.

MILK SNAKE

Lampropeltis triangulum (24-36", up to 52")

DescriptionAdults 18"—36" in length. Colored with bands of whitish to yellowish, black, and red or orange. Red or orange may appear as incomplete bands or saddles on black. Smooth scales. Single anal plate, two rows of scales on underside to tail.

Habitat
The milk snake occurs in a wide variety of habitats in Colorado, including shortgrass prairie, sandhills, shrubby hillsides, canyons, and open stand of ponderosa pine in the foothills, pinon juniper woodlands, and arid river valleys.

Food
This constrictor feeds opportunistically on a wide variety of small vertebrates, including mammals, birds, lizards, and snakes. It alsoconsumes bird and reptile eggs.

A boldly patterned snake, the milk snake has a light gray to tan body covered with reddish-brown blotches bordered in black. Larger blotches on the back alternate with smaller ones on each side. The head is patterned, usually with a light colored "Y" or "V" within a reddish-brown patch. Smooth scales give this attractive snake a shiny or glossy appearance. The belly is patterned with an irregular checkerboard of black on white. Similarity of patterns causes some to confuse it with the Copperhead however, the copperhead lacks any pattern on the head. Tail rattling may also lead some to mistake it for a RATTLESNAKE although the two species look quite different.
Mating generally occurs in May, with females depositing 3-24 eggs in June and July. Eggs are deposited under rocks, boards or other debris, in rotting vegetation, stumps or logs, or small mammal burrows, and usually hatch in August and September.
Woodlands, fields, rocky hillsides and borders of wetlands provide natural habitat for milk snakes. They are also commonly found around houses, barns and outbuildings. Small mammals are the preferred prey of milk snakes, who are able to enter burrows and consume young in their nests. Milk snakes routinely eat other snakes, and may also take birds and bird eggs, frogs, fish, earthworms, slugs and insects. Primarily nocturnal, milk snakes can be found during the day under rocks, logs, or other cover. Although they are not very aggressive, milk snakes will bite and spray musk if handled.

WESTERN HOGNOSE SNAKE

Identification:

Snout upturned, spadelike; upper scales keeled; 23 or fewer rows of scales on back and sides at midbody; underside of tail mostly black; maximum total length rarely more than 90 cm (35 inches), but in Colorado relatively few exceed 50 cm (20 inches) total length.

Description:Adults 16”–35" in length. Color light brown, with dorsal row of dark brown blotches. Row of smaller blotches on sides. Stout body; scales keeled. Enlarged and upturned scale on nose, giving snout a spade-like appearance (hence'hognose' snake). Divided anal plate.

Habitat
Typical habitat includes sandhills, plains grassland, and sandy floodplains, often in the vicinity of, or along the margins of, streams, irrigation ditches, and ponds. Hognose snakes are terrestrial and fossorial. Periods of inactivity are spent burrowed in the soil, in mammal burrows, or less commonly, under rocks or debris. Throughout most of eastern Colorado at elevations below 6,000 feet. Fairly common. Records of this species in Moffat County in northwestern Colorado need to be confirmed.

Life History: Females produce a clutch of eggs in late June-July. Hatchlings emerge in August-September. Toads, lizards, and reptile eggs are the primary foods. Hognose snakes can use the spadelike snout to dig out buried prey.

Food
Toads, lizards, and reptile eggs seem to be the primary foods, but mice, small birds, bird eggs, other reptiles and amphibians, and insects also may be eaten.

WESTERN RATTLESNAKE

Species: Western Rattlesnake(Crotalus viridis)

Description

Adults to 26" (subspecies concolor) or 48"(subspecies viridis) in length. Color cream oryellowish (subspecies concolor) or brown orgreenish (subspecies viridis).Median row ofdarker blotches on back; two rows of similar butsmaller blotches on sides (blotches faded insubspecies concolor). Wide head narrow neck,and stout body; keeled scales.

Habitat

The western rattlesnake occurs in virtually everyterrestrial habitat within its broad geographic andelevational range in Colorado. Typical habitatsinclude plains grassland, sandhills, semidesertshrubland, mountain shrubland, riparian zones,pinon juniper woodland, and montane woodland.

Food

Known prey in Colorado includes the plainsspadefoot, sideblotched lizard, lesser earlesslizard, shorthorned lizard, prairie and plateaulizard,plateaustriped whiptail,ringneckpheasant, songbirds, pocket mouse, prairie dog,ground squirrel, chipmunk, Ord's kangaroo rat,deer mouse, and other western harvest mouse.

RACER SNAKE

Species:Racer(Coluber constrictor)

Description

Adults 30"–60" in length. Color uniform brown,olive or grayish in adults; dark blotches onlighter background in juveniles. Slender bodywith smooth scales. Divided anal plate.

Habitat

Below 6000 feet in eastern Colorado; below5500 feet in western valleys.In westernColorado, this snake inhabits semidesertshrublands and lowland riparian habitats andadjacent areas in valleys and canyon bottoms, insome areas ranging into rocky pinon-juniperwoodlands bordering valley bottoms.

Food

The racer is a wide-ranging predator thatsearches for small animals and sometimesemploys quick bursts of speed to capture them. Racersfeed opportunisticallyon smallmammals, birds, (including those obtained fromnests in trees or shrubs), snakes, lizards,hatchling turtles, amphibians, and large insects.