Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Two-faced lamb born in New Zealand

From the deepest reaches of the most southerly point of mainland New Zealand, a biological anomaly has been born. A lamb with two faces – that's two mouths, two noses, three (maybe four) eyes – and one head was born at the Slope Point backpackers on Friday afternoon. The diprosopic bundle doesn't have an official name yet and farmer Andrew Wilson said the family were in two minds about what to call him, but he's certainly something a bit special, he conceded.

Wilson's six-year-old daughter Kate said they have taken to calling him Two Face. Little Two Face was discovered out in a paddock with his mother. The ewe had managed to give birth unassisted. However, because of the position and shape of his two mouths, Two Face was unable to feed naturally, Wilson said. ''He'd only last a day or so.'' Luckily, the lamb was given a second chance for survival and taken back to the farmhouse to be cared for by Kate and her half sisters Sarah and Anna Parker, aged 8 and 10.



Life will not be easy for the lamb. Two of his eyes have fused in the centre giving him one big, blind, cyclops eye and he appears able to only walk in circles. ''He's a bit top heavy,'' Wilson said. ''He almost needs a third leg in the front to balance him out.'' Also, it seemed he could eat with only the left side of his mouth, although when he baas, both tongues move in synchronisation. Despite his odd appearance, Kate and her sisters were quite taken with the little creature.

Kate said when she first saw him, she thought he was ''a bit gross.'' ''But then I started to like it.'' Little is known about what might cause the condition. Experts contacted today could not explain why the anomaly occurred without actually seeing the animal themselves. Former vet Andrew Roe, who practised for 25 years, said it was one of those rare freak-of-nature things that popped up occasionally. Usually animals with similar conditions did not survive long past birth and it was unusual the lamb had made it this far, Roe said.

With short video.

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