A two-headed pig had its bacon saved this week when its owners decided to care for the newborn instead of sending it to the slaughterhouse as planned.

The piglet, which has two snouts, two ears and a shared eye, was born on Wednesday in the Chinese village of Jiujiang in Jiangxi province.

It was supposed to be sent for slaughter, but the owners said they wanted to care for it instead.

Sadly, a local vet said the rare deformity meant the animal would find it difficult to survive.

The piglet’s condition is known as polycephaly, or axial bifurcation. A rare two-headed bull shark was found with the same condition last month.

It is the result of when an embryo begins to split into twins but the process then stops in its early stages. (wrapup)

ShareThis

Experts at Michigan State University were left shocked after confirming that a shark given to them was a single shark with two heads, rather than conjoined twins.

This amazing discovery was first brought to the marine science department at Florida Keys Community College, before being taken to the Michigan University for further analysis.

Professor Wagner and his fellow boffins used MRI scans to reveal the shark not only had two distinct heads, but also had two hearts and twos stomachs, with the remainder of the body joining together by a single tail.

The Daily Telegraph reports the case was brought to the public’s attention after being publicised in the Journal of Fish Biology. (wrapup)

ShareThis

Doctors were stunned after an 11-year-old schoolgirl was admitted to a hospital in China with a third arm sprouting out of her back.

The large mass was revealed to be part of an identical twin that had failed to develop and had been enveloped into the body of its sister. Further investigation found it consisted of a breast and an arm which included a shoulder blade and two fingers.

The case came to the attention of the medical world after it was highlighted by Professor Baogan Peng, of the General Hospital of Armed Police Force in Beijing.

Writing in the journal BMJ Case Reports, Prof Peng said: ‘Based on physical examination and imaging findings, a diagnosis of fetus in fetu was made preoperatively.’

Fetus in fetu in an incredibly rare condition that affects only one in five million live births. It is a condition where the malformed foetus is found in the body of its twin. The foetus is found in the abdomen in 80 per cent of cases, although there have been reports of it occurring in the skull. However, this is the first time that is has been reported in the back.

The young patient also suffered from diastematomyelia, which is a congenital disorder in which the spinal cord is split.

Prof Peng, who is an expert in spinal surgery, said doctors successfully removed the parasitic twin, despite there being no clear way of separating them.

He added that a later analysis also found digestive tract lining in the tissue. (Daily Mail)

ShareThis

Two heads are always better than one, the saying goes, although one feathered fowl may disagree.

A pelican that appears to have two heads was captured in flight over the Danube River by a lucky Ukrainian photographer earlier this month.

The image was taken by Vladimir Kucherenko in the Danube Delta, Europe’s largest and best preserved delta which is a host to 300 species of birds.

Kucherenko, 57, said he was on a photography expedition to the scenic area when he came across the odd bird soaring in the sky.

However, it was not until Kucherenko returned to his home in Odessa that he noticed the bizarre juxtaposition of the two heads on the bird.

This is not the first time this phenomenon has been seen among the winged representatives of the animal kingdom.

In August, an Oregon woman told the newspaper the Seaside Signal that she caught on camera what she believed to be a two-headed pelican walking on the beach in the town of Seaside.

In May, a resident of Northampton, Massachusetts, spotted and photographed a baby cardinal with two heads and three beaks that she had found in her backyard.

The Massachusetts Audubon Society told CBS Boston that animals with abnormalities like that usually do not live very long in the wild.

The development of two heads in an animal could be the result of random chance, exposure to chemicals or a complication during the gestation period that prevents a pair of embryos from splitting. (Daily Mail)

ShareThis

A piglet has been born in China with two mouths and three eyes.

Owner Zhang Hongxiu said the piglet was one of a litter born in Jiangyou, southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

Besides two eyes on each side of the head, the piglet has an extra eye on its forehead.

And its two mouths can suckle milk simultaneously.

Zhang said the newborn piglet weighed only 0.7kg, half the weight of a normal newborn piglet.

A local vet said the abnormal piglet was probably the result of genetic mutations and would probably not live long. (wrapup)

ShareThis

For most of us, having a small bird making a racket in the garden is nothing new.

But when April Britt heard a commotion in her backyard, she decided to investigate.

And what she found left her completely taken aback.

Perched on a branch was a baby female Cardinal with two heads and three beaks.

Speaking to ABC40, Mrs Britt, from Northampton, Massachusetts, said: ‘My husband says "Oh my God. Look at this poor thing! That’s an oddity if I ever saw one.’

The avid bird watcher and animal lover said she has lived in her home for 26 years and has never seen a bird like it before.

After taking some photographs and leaving the bird to its own devices, she returned a few hours later and discovered that the bird was lying on the ground.

She placed the tiny bird high in the a tree because she was concerned about a neighborhood cat finding it.

But the following morning the deformed bird had disappeared.

Mrs Britt said she is now worried that the bird won’t survive because of its deformity.

She has now asked a neighbor to keep a look-out for the bird in the hope that she can find out if it is still alive.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said the chances of the bird surviving are ‘very slim’.

After viewing these pictures, Valerie Osborne, from the charity, said: ‘It is very, very rare to find a bird like this. I have seen only one other similar case to this in the past 30 years.

‘I would say its chances of survival are very slim. It is difficult to see how it could feed.

‘It has obviously been fed by its parents but if it weakens then they would probably abandon it and I think it would then have no chance of being able to feed itself.’

It is not known what caused the deformity on the bird but a possible explanation is that the mother had a diet deficiency or underwent trauma while pregnant. (Mail Online)

ShareThis

Holy cow! A rare six-legged calf named Lilli, who was given no chance of survival by vets, has defied the odds to become a national celebrity in Switzerland.

After being born with a rare genetic disorder which left the animal with two extra limbs, vets feared the worst for the baby calf.

However, it seems seven-week old Lilli is made of stronger stuff – despite having two extra limbs attached to her back – after being snapped running around a sunny field in the agricultural Swiss outpost of Weissenburg.

The survival story has captured the hearts of the triangular chocolate producing nation and Lilli was featured in popular daily newspaper Blick earlier this week.

Since then, the young brown-and-white calf has hit headlines around the world and become a global internet sensation.

Farmer Andreas Knutti revealed he couldn’t bring himself to euthanise the animal because she was ‘so full of life’.

‘She was so alive, so impetuous,’ said the farmer.

‘Even if she is not a normal milking cow, I do not want to get rid of her. Perhaps we will find a zoo for her.’

Vet Auto Zardiashvili believes the curve in her spine caused by the genetic defect means she will never be a normal milking cow.

He also explained the mutation may be due to issues at conception.

‘Most probably there were twins, but then the embryos were united and we’ve got a strange lamb,’ Mr Zardiashvili said.

Mr Knutti says he expects Lilli to join her family when they head for higher Alpine pastures this summer – a centuries old Swiss tradition. (Metro)

ShareThis

Creepy outstretched "arms" and twisted torso . . . you really wooden want to bump into this dodgy-looking oak.

It was spotted beside a hedge near Colchester, Essex.

But it’s not the only tree giving Brits the heebie-jeebies. There’s a frowning beast in Finsbury Park, North London, and a beech in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, looks like a screaming gargoyle.

They are straight from the Lord Of The Rings films, which had trees with faces that wandered about. But don’t fret, this lot are definitely rooted to the spot. (The Sun)

ShareThis

A Georgian farmer has proudly showed off the latest addition to his menagerie of livestock, a hermaphrodite lamb with six legs and a big appetite.

The wondrous birth happened in Velistsikhe, Georgia.

The tiny brown and white lamb can be seen nursing from its mother and maneuvering happily around its stable home.

The lamb appears to be quite tame as it is hoisted up and around by farmer Abadzhanov Albert, who beams from ear to ear throughout a video.

His family are also impressed with the leggy critter, and a youngster can be seen tenderly stroking its soft fur.

Abadzhanov explained the birth had caused chatter amongst locals and his peers.

He said: ‘I have been asking the other shepherds, but none of them remember such case.

‘There were three-legged lambs, one-eyed, but not six-legged, bisexual one. The lamb eats well, but moves with difficulty.’

Birth mutations are reasonably common in farm animals like sheep, cows and goats.

They occur when an egg does not completely split in to two, meaning what could have been twin offspring end up as one offspring with extra limbs or sometimes in extreme cases, an extra head.

It’s a theory that the farmer supports. ‘Most probably there were twins, but then the embryos were united, and we’ve got a strange lamb,’ he said.

There has been a string of unusual births in Georgia since the start of this year, with stories of a three-legged cat and two-headed lamb being reported in the media. (Metro)

ShareThis

A piglet born with three eyes and two mouths has become something of a local celebrity in China.

Neighbours have been flocking to see the unusual animal at a pig farm in Changtai County, Fujian Province.

Farmer Xiao Jintu said it was one of 12 piglets in a litter and that all of the others were normal.

"It came out fifth and I couldn’t believe it when I first saw it," he said.

The piglet has two symmetrical mouths and an extra eye in the centre of its forehead.

Xiao said he planned to keep the piglet and was giving it extra care to help it survive. (Orange News)

ShareThis