Speaking of New Year's babies, the New England Aquarium in Boston was lucky to have 14 of them - all healthy, presumably happy, anaconda snakes, officials said.
Ashley, the aquarium's 16-foot anaconda, had been resting in a behind-the-scenes tank as her due date grew closer, and finished birthing the newborns by 5 a.m. yesterday, said Scott Dowd, the aquarium's
Though there was one still-born snake and some unfertilized eggs, the 14 live snakes are all healthy and measure in around 2 feet long, said Dowd.
"They're amazingly alert, and they're just perfect little miniatures of their giant parents," Dowd said.
The father of the litter of snakes is the only male anaconda in the exhibit.
The holiday birth was not much of a surprise, Dowd said.
"We knew that the due date was just about now. The big thing that we're all getting a kick out of is that my wife was due right around this time," he said.
Dowd's first child, Theodore, was born six days ago.
