Bhubaneswar: A water snake and 13 newborn hatchlings were rescued from a house in the city on Sunday morning.
Kalandi Das, a resident of Raghunathpur, found the snake in his house and informed Snake Helpline. Following this, Snake Helpline member Purna Chandra Das reached the house and put the snake inside a plastic bag.
Das realised the snake was pregnant. He opened the bag and found that the snake has given birth to 10 hatchlings. He then put the mother snake and the hatchlings in a plastic water container. Later, the mother snake gave birth to three more hatclings.
The rescued snakes were later released in a nearby water body.
According to General Secretary of Snake Helpline Subhendu Mohanty, the rescued reptile is a smooth-scaled water snake and its scientific name is Enhydris enhydris. These are non-poisonous snakes and are locally known as Kauchia Sapa. They are found in fresh and alkaline water.
Mohanty said unlike other poisonous and non-poisonous snakes that lay eggs, these smooth-scaled water snakes belong to the mammal species as they give birth to hatchlings. These snakes give birth to around 4-18 hatchlings at a time.
He also informed that the snakes neither take care of the newborn hatchlings nor teach them to catch prey. Rather the baby snakes learn the art of preying on their own and some of them die if they fail, he added.
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