Only 70 percent of snakes actually lay eggs, which is pretty weird considering they're reptiles. In fact, the suborder that snakes belong to demonstrates three different types of birthing: Oviparous (egg-laying), Viviparous (live-birthing) and ovoviviparous (where embryos develop in eggs but offspring are born live).
The egg-layers tend to live in hotter climates, while the live-birthing and ovoviviparous snakes tend to dwell in colder environments because the ground is not warm enough to incubate the eggs. The fully viviparous species, such as the boa constrictor and green anaconda, give their young nutrients in utero through a placenta.
See? They're like us! (Although sometimes the mothers do munch on the casings and dead babies to provide herself with energy while she's giving birth.) Check out the footage below to see what the process looks like.
An anaconda delivering 15 live babies. image credit: BBC Worldwide/Youtube
This species can give birth to up to 40 babies at a time. Image credit: BBC Worldwide/Youtube
Main image credit: alif_abdulrahman/Flickr. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
