A farmer was shocked after finding a rare two-headed baby snake hunting for food in her back yard.

Glinda Khunsak, 48, noticed the little creature crawling on her patio in Chonburi, eastern Thailand on October 16.

At first, she thought it was a long worm, but when she walked closer, she saw it was a 12-inch long snake with two heads - each of them moving independently.

She scooped the tame radiated rat snake into a basin before calling animal rescuers who took it to the local reptile centre to take care of and conduct studies.

The woman said: "The snake amazed me because I have never seen any with two heads before.''

The double-headed serpent appeared healthy and energetic despite having two heads. It was given some food before the rescuers took it away.

Glinda's superstitious neighbours rushed to her house after hearing about the strange creature and used her address as lottery numbers.

Local custom suggests that animal encounters, especially strange ones, bring luck to people so they always use the numbers associated with it in the lottery.

The snake is believed to have Polycephaly, a genetic mutation which results in the offspring having more than one head. The most commonly observed two-headed animals are within turtle and snake species.

Two-headed snakes happen in the same way that Siamese twins do. A developing embryo begins to split into identical twins but then stops midway, leaving the twins joined.