The Two-Headed Turtle at the San Antonio Zoo

Meet Thelma and Louise, the tiny Texas cooter

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AP / San Antonio Zoo

Thelma and Louise, a two-headed Texas cooter turtle, is seen in photo provided by the San Antonio Zoo on June 25, 2013

If two heads are better than one, then San Antonio’s newest amphibian is the best animal in the zoo. The emerald green turtle, which arrived on June 18 and went on display Tuesday, has two noggins conjoined near the neck. Zoo officials named the Texas cooter Thelma and Louise, in tribute to the 1991 movie starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis about a female duo on the run. The turtle, which is actually a pair of unseparated twins, is healthy and eating with both heads.

“The first day I saw her and held her, she seemed like she had a split personality,” reptile curator Craig Pelke told the Associated Press. “The right side was looking around and very curious, and the left side was trying to bite me.”

The tiny green reptile is less than two inches wide, with a shell only slightly larger than a penny.

The Texas cooter isn’t the first two-headed animal in captivity, nor is it the first to be named after the famous movie duo. The Reptile Zoo, located right outside Disneyland, is home to a much more intimidating Thelma and Louise — a two-headed ratsnake. And the San Diego Zoo had a two-headed Thelma and Louise corn snake in the nineties that had 15 babies before its death.

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