Outline Circulating message claims that an attached image depicts a three headed cobra found on a roadway somewhere in India.
Brief Analysis
The image does not depict a real three headed snake. A photograph of a normal, one-headed snake has been digitally manipulated to create the fake three-headed version. The original photograph used in the manipulation can be seen in the detailed analysis below.
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Last updated: 2nd March 2012
First published: 2nd March 2012
Article written by Brett M. Christensen About Brett Christensen and Hoax-Slayer
Example
Three Headed Snake Found Live In India
This snake was found somewhere in India...but what type of snake is this? This is scary
Detailed Analysis
This message, which circulates via social media websites, and email, claims that an accompanying photograph depicts a three-headed snake found on a roadway somewhere in India.
However, the image does not show a real three-headed snake. In fact, the image is a digitally manipulated version of the following photograph that depicts a normal, one-headed snake:
Clearly, some prankster has simply taken the above photograph and added the extra heads using Adobe Photoshop or another digital manipulation tool.
Such digital tomfoolery is not unprecedented. Several other fake multiple-headed snake images have circulated in recent years, including ones supposedly depicting five headed cobras.
Animals, including snakes, are indeed sometimes born with more than one head, a condition known as Polycephaly. However, the fake picture included in this hoax message does not depict a genuine case of Polycephaly.
