The staff of St. Louis Zoo was stunned when their 62-year-old python laid eggs.

Two years ago, when the staff of St. Louis Zoo checked for ball python snake number 361003, they were shocked to see that beside her was a clutch of eggs.

If you think it is just about the age, well, it’s not.

That’s just half of it.

This ball python hasn’t been near a mate for over 15 years, so the discovery shocked everyone.

“It was a surprise. We didn’t expect her to drop another clutch of eggs, honestly,” Mark Wanner, the St. Louis Zoo’s Zoological Manager of Herpetology told CNN.

At first, the staff of the zoo noticed the snake’s odd behavior.

They just thought that the snake wasn’t in the mood.

Even animals change behaviors due to weather, illness, or emotions.

They didn’t see it coming.

Who would have thought that those changes were because she was about to lay eggs?

“She’d definitely be the oldest snake we know of in history (to lay eggs),” Wanner told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Their ball python snake didn’t have a name and was recognized as snake 361003.

She is a ball python from central and western Africa.

She can reproduce asexually, obviously.

This amazing process is called facultative parthenogenesis.

According to PubMed:

“Facultative parthenogenesis – the ability of sexually reproducing species to sometimes produce offspring asexually – is known from a wide range of ordinarily sexually reproducing vertebrates in captivity, including some birds, reptiles and sharks.”

Imagine that. There are animals who can reproduce on their own and don’t even need a mate to help them.

Nature never ceases to amaze us.

“Usually female snakes lay eggs after mating with a male, but in rare circumstances, they can produce young without mating in a process called parthenogenesis. There are several reported cases involving ball pythons,” Tygerberg Animal Hospital’s Dr. Stephen Smith told in an interview with News 24. “Several lizard species do this as their only method of reproduction – the populations only consist of females.”

There are also some female species that can actually store sperm and decide when to use it. How convenient, right?

Usually, they can store sperm for a year or two. By then they would have decided if they will use it to fertilize their eggs or not.

As for snake number 361003, the last known interaction she had with a mate was in the late 80s or early 90s.

It’s been a long time.

That’s a really long time for her to have stored eggs.

“We’re saying 15 plus years, but I mean, it’s probably easily closer to 30 years since she’s been physically with a male,” Wanner added.

According to the interview, they have to do more research and study to know if the eggs were sexually or asexually produced.

The staff took three of the snake’s eggs and decided that it was best to place them into an incubator at Charles H. Hoessle Herpetarium.

Unfortunately, two of the eggs didn’t survive.

Like many of us, we’re still waiting for an update.

Learn more about this spinster snake’s freshly laid clutch of eggs in the video below!

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Source: News24, CNN, WHIO, Lisa Scottoline, PubMed