Sheep gives birth to human-faced lamb

• From: AFP: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/
  

Source: The Daily Telegraph

A SHEEP gave birth to a dead lamb with a human-like face. The lamb was born in a village not far from the city of Izmir, Turkey.

Erhan Elibol, a vet, performed  a caesarean on the animal to take the lamb out, but was horrified to see that the features of the lamb's snout bore a striking resemblance to a human face.

“I’ve seen mutations with cows and sheep before. I’ve seen a one-eyed calf, a two-headed calf, a five-legged calf. But when I saw this youngster I could not believe my eyes. His mother could not deliver him so I had to help the animal,” the 29-year-old veterinary said.
The lamb’s head had human features on – the eyes, the nose and the mouth – only the ears were those of a sheep.
Vets said that the rare mutation most likely occurred as a result of improper mutation since the fodder for the lamb’s mother was abundant with vitamin A, CNNTurk.com reports.

A goat from Zimbabwe gave birth to a similar youngster in September 2009. The mutant baby born with a human-like head stayed alive for several hours until the frightened village residents killed him.
The governor of the province where the ugly goat was born said that the little goat was the fruit of unnatural relationship between the female goat and a man.
"This incident is very shocking. It is my first time to see such an evil thing. It is really embarrassing," he reportedly said. "The head belongs to a man while the body is that of a goat. This is evident that an adult human being was responsible. Evil powers caused this person to lose self control. We often hear cases of human beings who commit bestiality but this is the first time for such an act to produce a product with human features," he added.
The mutant creature was hairless. Local residents said that even dogs were afraid to approach the bizarre animal.
The locals burnt the body of the little goat, and biologists had no chance to study the rare mutation.

Core blimey! It's the red and green apple with a split personality

By Arthur Martin

When Ken Morrish picked this apple off a tree in his garden, he thought a prankster had painted half of it red.

But after inspecting it closely he realised that the remarkable split colours on the fruit were a natural phenomenon. And the bizarre apple turned Mr Morrish into something of a celebrity in his village with scores of neighbours queuing up to take a photograph of it.

Experts say that the odds of finding an apple with such a perfect line between the green and the red are more than 1million to one.

Enlarge

A fruit of two halves: This Golden Delicious apple seems to be having an identity crisis, split perfectly down the middle into red and green. Local horticulture experts are baffled by the specimen

But Mr Morrish, a retired painter and decorator who lives in Colaton Raleigh, near Sidmouth in Devon, has no plans to eat it.

Instead, he has stored it in his fridge so villagers can continue to come round and take photos.

'It looks as if a green apple and a red apple has been cut in half and stuck together,' he said. 'I couldn't believe my eyes. It's absolutely phenomenal.

The 72-year-old pensioner spotted the split-coloured fruit as he picked apples from a Golden Delicious tree in his garden.

One in a million: Ken Morrish could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the freaky fruit.

Horticulturists say the colourings on the apple are probably caused by a random genetic mutation.

In such cases, the red side usually tastes sweeter than the green side - because it has seen more sunshine during its growth.

Fact file

• Mutations also occurs in other fruits and flowers. Last year a woman peeled back a banana skin and discovered the fruit was bright red inside.

• If the genetic mutation took place within the apple, it is likely to be a one-off occurrence. However, if the mutation occurred in the tree, there could be similar coloured apples next year.

• Even though it is half red, half green, the apple is still called as a Golden Delicious. Red Delicious apples are a different species and have not been interbred with the Golden Delicious species.

• Mutations can sometimes be triggered by cold weather, temperature fluctuations or insect damage.

'The red and green split through the stem is totally perfect - as if I've painted it. It's a genuine one-off and none of us have ever seen an apple like it before.'

Mr Morrish, a grandfather-of-two who has grown apples for 45 years, took the fruit to horticultural experts at a nearby college for closer examination.

'They took pictures of it and said they had never come across anything like it either,' he added. 'It's caused a real stir in the village. People have been coming round to see it and take photos of it.

'I'm sure a few hundred years ago it would have been seen as a supernatural sign or something. I don't know if it's worth a lot of money but I won't be letting it out of my sight.'

John Breach, chairman of the British Independent Fruit Growers Association, said: 'I've never seen this happen before to a Golden Delicious. It is extremely rare. It is an extreme mutation.

'There has been the occasional case of this type reported. If there was a whole branch of apples with the same colouring then fruit experts would get even more excited.'

Jim Arbury, fruit superintendent at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey, said it was probably the 'result of a random genetic mutation'.

'This is known as a chimera where one of the first two cells has developed differently giving rise to one half of the apple being different,' he said.

'It is unlikely to be a stable mutation but it is worth checking next year to see if it recurs. There are instances of some striped apples and pears where the mutation remains stable including one striped pear in the collection at Wisley called Pysanka.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1215824/A-fruit-halves-Meet-red-green-apple-split-personality.html#ixzz0S8wXeYKG