A farmer got the shock of a lifetime when one of his cows gave birth to a calf with two heads.
Farmer Bhaskar was not anticipating any hitches when his cow gave birth at his farm in Paarasalai village in southern India last week.
The unusual cloven-hoved youngster had four eyes and two mouths, but only one pair of ears.
Bhaskar’s farm has quickly became a tourist attraction, receiving visitors from neighbouring villages wanting to see the rare calf.
Because the baby cow has two tongues it is unable to drink milk, meaning the caring farmer has to feed him milk from a bottle each day.
The mother and calf both are presently well, but the future of the youngster is uncertain.
The phenomenon of an animal being born with two heads is called bicephaly.
The unusual birth defect is found in a wide variety of species including in snakes, bulls, sharks, turtles and prawns.
Within snake populations those in captivity are born with two heads fairly regularly due to inbreeding.
As well as physical problems, two headed animals often suffer from differing opinions.
“Sometimes with two-headed animals you’ll get one head that’s a little bit more dominant over the other one,” herpetologist Dr John Kleopfer told ABC.
