Pick Your Poison

      What's worse than a one headed snake? A two headed snake, that's what. Ophidiophobes are recoiling in fear at the sight of a small, non-venomous snake born with two heads. A Dalian farmer spotted the snake and has donated him to Dalian Forestry Zoo.

The condition that it bears is called Polycephaly. It's a birth defect which allows an animal to be born with two heads or the condition to have two heads. Two-headed animals are often found in symbolism and fables but this is a real  condition which can be found in many animals, even humans. Seeing a two headed snake in a dream can refer to a love affair or a love triangle. They have been documenting Polycephaly even during the 30's.

Polycephaly is just a really a emphasized example of conjoined twins. These twins happen only when identical twins don't separate completely. So instead of the two twins, you end up with twins who are still attached. This description is listed on an earlier post on my blog.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/picturesoftheday/8878687/Pictures-of-the-day-9-November-2011.html?image=3

Doe-eyed Fable

      The fabled Unicorn was spotted in a nature preserve in Italy, but not as one would expect. A Unicorn's appearance was spoken to be a white horselike or goatlike animal with a long spiraling horn but this serves as an exception having been discovered in a fawn. Although this doe posses no mythical or healing  abilities, people from all over the world have come to visit, "Unicorn."

This genetic flaw is the first time to ever been recorded, so there's no classification for this abnormality. There is a theory that this wasn't the first time this abnormality has taken place, and that is where the legend of the Unicorn originated from.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/06/12/deer-with-rare-unicorn-horn-spotted-in-italy/

Limb By Lamb

              

        The morning of June 14th Neil Falk, landowner of the New South Wales property came across an unusual find on his premises. A sheep had given birth to a lamb with five legs and six feet.

While the lamb still retained it's normal legs, full-functioning it also had the addition of having two feet conveniently placed behind it's head.  

 Despite the extra limbs, reports have mentioned that the lamb is still healthy and able to bound around effortlessly. According to a spokeswoman for the Sydney University veterinary facilities at Cobbitty said, "the lamb's condition was extremely rare."

While she may be true with her words, she forgot to mention that this condition is called Polymelia and it is often found in humans and land-dwelling animals. This birth defect can have two cuases, sometimes an embryo initially started ad conjoined twins but one twin completely deteriorated entirely in exception to one or more limbs which wind up being attached to the other twin believing the opposing twin was gone completely. Another cause would be the body axis forking in the dipygus condition , resulting in small limbs emerging between normal limbs.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/weird/lamb-found-with-leg-growing-from-its-head/story-e6frev20-1225740960983

Oh You've Got To Be Kitten Me

The photo shown above is not Tinker Toy since his photo was not provided, but of a Himalayan Persian kitten.

                                Born the runt of a litter of six kittens on 25 December 1990, this cat grew to expectations as the world's smallest cat; only growing up to be a whopping 19 cm.  A male, blue point Himalayan Persian named Tinker Toy grew up in custody of  Katrina and Scott Forbes in Taylorville, Illinois. Tinker Toy only lived to be six years until passing away, on November 1997.

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-10000/smallest-cat-ever/

Den In The Parking Lot

              
                New behavioral habits have been coming from coyotes living in Seashore beach; nine coyotes were found begging at cars, hoping to get a midnight snack. Coyote's natural appetite mainly consists of  rodents, small animals, pets, but also scavenge road kill, garbage, and even pet food . These scavengers will eat anything they can get their paws on, and sources of predicted human-provided food can make a coyote to act tame and could lead to strange behavior. Because of the increasing number of coyotes coming in, rangers have also increased in number to monitor the parking lot and beach.

These behaviors were caused by us by foolishly illegally offering them food, such as bags of dog food and piles of fish guts and fish heads in the parking lot. Rangers are prohibiting people to give these animals anymore food for safety reasons and to maintain their natural diet.

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131105/NEWS/311050333/-1/NEWS11

Two Heads Are Better Than One

             

                               Out of several turtles being hatched in the San Antonio Zoo, employees are finding it hard to maintain a head count. A female cooter turtle was born with not one head, but two heads; named Thelma and Louise. Fortunately, the two-headed turtle appears healthy and is able to function properly, being able to  swim and walk. Most born like this don't survive long in the wild, but experts claim that she will be able to live healthily.

This birth deformity is called Polycephaly, found in many occurrences. Although not common, this is not a rare abnormality and has been documented many times before. Polycephaly is an extreme case of conjoined twins. How this happens is, depending on when the split happens between the embryos, twins can either grow in their own sac with their own placenta or they can share a sac and placenta which allows them to share a body.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/26/two-headed-turtle_n_3504540.html

Are You Seeing What I'm Seeing?

           Most assume that Cyclopia is only associated with Mythology, often referring to Cyclopes in stories, but this is a real birth defect that is still found today. In this case, it's found in an albino, fetal dusky shark discovered within it's mother's womb caught off the Gulf of California. Experts affirm that this is real, after thoroughly examining the shark. This meant that if he'd been born it wouldn't have survived long. 'Less than 50 recorded examples have been found with this abnormality', says biologist Felipe Galván-Magaña.This cryptic creature has encouraged many mythical enthusiasts, spurring them into presenting their findings.

There is not always that much known about the causes of cyclopia. One potential cause of cyclopia is a toxin found in the plant Veratrum Californicum. However it is common that it may occur 4 times in 1000 births.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/10/18/albino-cyclops-shark-is-real-experts-say/