The Myth of the Seven-Headed Snake in Thailand

Did you also receive a thrilling WhatsApp message about a miraculous seven-headed snake photographed in Thailand? Don't get excited too quickly, even though the message claims such a snake is described in the Talmud, Tractate Kiddushin.

Firstly, the snake mentioned in Kiddushin isn't a real snake, but rather a demon that appeared in the form of a snake with seven heads. Secondly, the snake in the picture is neither a demon nor a seven-headed creature – it's an ordinary, plain snake.

This image has been circulating online since 2013, accompanied by breathless claims about this so-called eighth wonder of the world. Unfortunately for the image's distributor, the original photo can also be found online, showing the snake in its true form with just a single head. In 2012, someone used Photoshop to add two extra heads to the snake. Later, they decided that a three-headed snake wasn't thrilling enough, so they upped the head count to seven.

Two-headed snakes, by the way, do occasionally occur, as do other multi-headed animals. Even a three-headed snake, while rare, is possible. However, throughout history, no living creature with more than three heads has ever been documented – and the snake in the WhatsApp picture is not the first but just an unconvincing fake.

The photo circulating on WhatsApp:

The previous fake, giving the snake only 3 heads:

The original image of a completely ordinary snake: