The Washington Post reported researchers have said this year a yellow-bellied watersnake at Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center in Missouri, which was not in touch with a male snake for at least eight years, has managed to give birth again on her own.

In a press release, Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) herpetologist Jeff Briggler said, “For many years, it was believed that such birth in captivity was due to sperm storage. However, genetics is proving a different story”.

This kind of reproduction has been seen in birds, insects and reptiles, but in snakes, including cottonmouths, copperheads and Burmese pythons such a kind of thing has been seen rarely.

In this case, virgin birth is scientifically referred to as parthenogensis, or asexual reproduction. This reproduction includes female production without any genetic contribution from males in which a polar body works nearly like sperm and fertilizes an egg.

The two babies that the water snake gave birth to in 2014 are still alive and healthy, whereas all the offspring she produced in 2015 have died.

A biology professor and snake expert at Avila University in Kansas City, Robert Powell said that the Brahminy blind snake has been the only known snake that has routinely reproduced without any contribution from male. The Brahminy blind snake is a small burrowing animal native to Southeast Asia well known as the flowerpot snake.