From one-eyed kittens to horned cows and zombie deer, the wild is serving up creatures that look more like science fiction than nature.
Across the globe, stunned locals have captured footage of animals born with extra heads, legs, eyes, and even tentacle-like growths.
Some survived hours, while others have learned to live – and even thrive – with their shocking mutations.
Viral clips and haunting photographs have left experts scrambling to explain how and why these bizarre beings exist. In some cases, rare viruses are to blame, while others remain medical mysteries.
Social media has helped turn these strange sightings into global sensations overnight.
Scientists warn that climate change, pollution, and new diseases could be fuelling a rise in animal abnormalities.
What was once unthinkable is now being seen in backyards, forests, and beaches.
From land to sea, these mutant animals are both terrifying and fascinating in equal measure. The natural world has never looked so unsettling.
Cyclops kitten
A kitten born in Brazil drew global attention in November 2025 after being born with a single eye in the centre of its face.
Locals named the creature, which was part of a litter of four in the town of Vilhena, the ‘Cyclops Cat’. Sadly, it lived for less than two days.
Farmhand Gilberto Almeida told NewsX: ‘I’m 32 years old and I’ve never seen anything like this in my life, my cat has had several litters, but this was the first time something like this happened’.
Almeida filmed the kitten shortly after birth, where it was seen scanning the area with its one eye.
The clip went viral on social media in Brazil within hours, and many were left questioning whether it was real.
But the tiny cat only lived for less than 48 hours before dying from respiratory failure – a common complication for animals with severe cranial deformities.
Talking to the New York Post, veterinarian Janete Silva explained that the kitten’s condition was consistent with cyclopia.
A kitten born in Brazildrew global attention in November 2025 after being born with a single eye in the centre of its face
The tiny cat only lived for less than 48 hours before dying from respiratory failure – a common complication for animals with severe cranial deformities
Zombie deer
In August, deer across the US were spotted with tumor-like growths hanging off their bodies, joining rabbits and squirrels as animals showing signs of widespread disease.
From the Northeast to the Pacific Northwest, pictures on social media documented cases of strange bubbles growing all over local deer, from their faces to their legs.
They were seen in images and footage with black warts covering their bodies and faces, as they spooked locals who set eyes on them.
Between June and August, people photographed deformed deer in New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Wildlife officials identified the condition as deer cutaneous fibroma, better known as deer warts.
The condition was due to a virus transmitted between deer in all parts of the US, and experts warned that it was spreading during the summer.
The virus mainly spreads through disease-carrying insects like mosquitoes and ticks, which pass on the blood of infected deer to healthy animals nearby.
Since these potentially deadly pests breed and multiply in warmer weather, Americans were warned to expect to see more cases of the condition wherever deer may live.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said: ‘Papillomas are most frequently seen during the late summer and into the fall, probably due to increased biting insect activity during this time of year.’
This year, Americans also encountered mutated rabbits and squirrels, which spread their own species-specific viruses throughout the US. These animals dealt with similar sores and growths on their bodies as well.
Deer warts can be small, like a pea, or grow as big as a football, appearing gray, black, or fleshy and often hairless.
While disease-transmitting insects are believed to be the main culprit spreading the virus, direct contact with the warts may also infect deer.
In rare cases, if the warts grow too large or become infected with bacteria, they can cause problems like blocking a deer’s vision or ability to eat.
While deer can’t spread deer warts to people, they can bring illnesses such as Lyme disease to populated areas, which is passed on to humans through the ticks they carry.
In August deer across the US were spotted with tumor-like growths hanging off their bodies
The condition was due to a virus transmitted between deer in all parts of the US, and experts warned that it was spreading during the summer
Deer warts can be small, like a pea, or grow as big as a football, appearing gray, black, or fleshy and often hairless
Tentacled rabbits
A bizarre virus turned ordinary rabbits in the US into grotesque, horned creatures with black, tentacle-like growths sprouting from their faces.
The mutated rabbits were spotted multiple times in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Reports date back to 2024, when a resident posted a photo online showing the creature’s entire head covered in black, spike-like protrusions.
The rabbits were infected by the cottontail papilloma virus (CRPV), also known as Shope papilloma virus, which causes tumors to grow on or near the animal’s head.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) urged anyone who sees infected rabbits to stay away and not touch them.
Although these ‘Frankenstein’ rabbits were mainly seen in Colorado, researchers noted that cottontail rabbits throughout the Midwest could have become infected with the rare virus.
The virus spreads mainly via mosquitoes and ticks, which bite an infected animal and pass on the DNA-altering condition.
Scientists noted that SPV rarely spreads through direct contact between these rabbits, and there are no known cases of insects infecting people with it through a bite.
The first sign that a rabbit has the virus is red, raised spots on their skin that eventually turn into wart-like tumors.
In many cases, these warts develop into keratinized papillomas, the ‘horns’ and ‘tentacles’ seen growing out of midwestern rabbits.
However, some of the warts can turn into a squamous cell carcinoma, a serious skin cancer that can be deadly if it spreads and isn’t treated early.
Occasionally, the growths heal on their own, but locals say wild rabbits in the area tend to develop bigger and bigger horns.
The tumors can eventually become large enough to interfere with the rabbit’s ability to eat, causing them to die of starvation.
The mutated rabbits were spotted multiple times in Fort Collins, Colorado
The rabbits were infected by the cottontail papilloma virus (CRPV), also known as Shope papilloma virus, which causes tumors to grow on or near the animal’s head
The first sign that a rabbit has the virus is red, raised spots on their skin that eventually turn into wart-like tumors
Moo-nicorn
A cow born on a farm in Uzbekistan in 2016 grew a bizarre third horn from the middle of its head like a unicorn.
Pictures taken in the central Asian republic show a group of men and a child examining the animal’s unusual appearance.
The images were widely shared on social media when they were posted online. Local media reported that the extra horn does not appear to cause the cow any trouble.
The farmer who owns the animal said he had initially been worried that the herd would not accept it.
But he later revealed that the extra horn gave it a considerable advantage.
He told local media that the cow was pushing the other calves around and using its third horn to poke them out of the way.
Online commentators suggested it may be a sign that pollution was continuing to take a toll on the natural world.
But others described the animal as a ‘beauty’ and said they hoped others would be bred the same way.
A cow born on a farm in Uzbekistan in 2016 grew a bizarre third horn from the middle of its head like a unicorn
Online commentators suggested it may be a sign that pollution was continuing to take a toll on the natural world
Spaghetti monster fish
Last year, experts warned Texans to stay away from a mysterious sea beast that was washing up by the dozen along the coast after numerous reported sightings.
The unusual clusters were spotted on the coastline outside Corpus Christi in March 2024, making headlines for their bizarre eyeball-like appearance and fat, ratty tail.
With reported sightings just in land from the Gulf of Mexico, experts firmly advised people to stay away from the ominous eyeball-shaped critters, however, due to a deadly detail in their biology.
The so-called ‘spaghetti monsters’, or Rhizophysa, pack a punch ‘like their cousins, the man o’ war’, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said after a 2021 sighting.
It transpires that the organisms are not actually a single animal at all, but a colony of carnivorous beings working together to hunt ocean prey as one.
‘If you see these floating up on the beach, just admire their creepy beauty,’ the institute said. ‘But don’t touch, unless you want to feel the pain of the eyeball from the sea.’
Despite their relatively innocent appearance, they are predatory carnivores and live on crustaceans and small fish.
Their tentacles use powerful neurotoxins to snag prey, enveloping it in their cluster responsible for feeding, digesting it, and dispersing it around the colony.
The unusual clusters were spotted on the coastline outside Corpus Christi in March 2024, making headlines for their bizarre eyeball-like appearance and fat ratty tail
Two-headed turtle
A mutant two-headed turtle was discovered living a relatively normal life by shocked conservationists in August 2019.
The bizarre creature was uncovered on the shores of Hilton Head, an island in the US state of South Carolina.
But despite its unnatural appearance, experts said there is no reason for concern, and this anomaly is relatively normal.
Amber Kuehn, manager of Sea Turtle Patrol Hilton Head Island, said such animals pop up very rarely.
She said: ‘In South Carolina, after we’ve noticed that a nest has hatched, we will leave it for three days to make sure that everything comes out naturally that would come out naturally.
‘Then we go in and dig everything out, we count the empty shells, we count the eggs that didn’t hatch, we count live hatchlings and dead hatchlings, and we put all of that information into a database for the state.
‘In this situation, there was a hatchling trapped in there – it would not have got out naturally – and it was this one with the two heads.’
Staff who discovered the turtle said that the right head appeared to govern one flipper, while the left head governed the other.
A mutant two-headed turtle was discovered living a relatively normal life by shocked conservationists in August 2019
The bizarre creature was uncovered on the shores of Hilton Head, an island in the US state of South Carolina
Three-legged duck
Stumpy the Duck caught the media’s attention worldwide after it was born at the Warrawee Duck Farm in the New Forest on February 7, 2007.
The duck was born with four legs, but lost one after getting it trapped in his pen.
Farm owner Nicky Janaway said at the time: ‘He’s now only got three legs and a stump, which means he’s Stumpy by name and stumpy by nature.
‘He got the leg caught in the pen fencing, he clean snapped it, but he had no idea anything had happened, so he may not have had any sensation in it.
‘We whisked him off to the vet, who finished off what he had started and cleaned it up.
‘The good thing that has come out of it is that he can now roam the farm, and he and his girlfriend, Duck Alice, are harassing the others.
‘It has given him his freedom because if he had got his leg stuck in a hedge as he did in the pen, I would never have found him. The other leg is tucked up so it has no chance of getting stuck.’
Mrs Janaway said she was gobsmacked when she first turned Stumpy over after it hatched to find out its sex and was confronted by all those legs.
She said: ‘It was absolutely bizarre. I was thinking ‘he’s got too many legs’ and I kept counting ‘1,2,3,4’.’
Stumpy the Duck caught the media’s attention worldwide after it was born at the Warrawee Duck Farm in the New Forest on February 7, 2007
The duck was born with four legs, but lost one after getting it trapped in his pen
Doggy-modo
A hunchback hound who was born without a neck received an incredible 1,200 offers of a new home after photos of his deformed body went viral in 2016.
Dog lovers appealed in their droves to take home German Shepherd Quasimodo after pictures of the pooch were posted on his personal Facebook page.
Quasimodo, named because of his crooked figure, was taken in by rescue group Second Hand Hounds after he was spotted as a stray in Kentucky, USA, by the authorities.
The dog was one of just 15 around the world who suffered from short-spine syndrome, a condition leaving him just a third of the size he should be at his age.
Despite his shortcomings, Quasimodo proved to be extremely popular with his Facebook page getting nearly 100,000 likes almost a decade ago.
When he was inspected, vets found he had an ’embedded collar’.
This is a condition where a band is fastened so tightly that skin grows over it. Thankfully, the collar was removed, but it was far from the last of the dog’s problems.
After scans, it was also revealed that he was missing a vertebra, and those that he had were pushing together.
This meant he could only eat meals in small amounts due to pressure piling up on his lungs and organs.
A hunchback hound who was born without a neck received an incredible 1,200 offers of a new home after photos of his deformed body went viral in 2016
The dog was one of just 15 around the world who suffered from short-spine syndrome, a condition leaving him just a third of the size he should be at his age
Despite his short comings Quasimodo proved to be extremely popular with his Facebook page getting nearly 100,000 likes almost a decade ago
Deformed canine besties
Two deformed dogs became best friends after the same family adopted them in 2022.
Picasso and Newt both have facial deformities, and live with the Founder and director of Luvable Dog Rescue, Liesl Wilhardt, 53, on 55 acres of land at their home in Eugene, Oregon.
Picasso was born with a twisted snout, while Newt suffered an injury from his mother biting him that left him with no upper jaw.
Picasso’s condition is called wry mouth, which causes one side of the jaw to grow more than the other, leading to a distorted look that closely resembles the pieces of art created by his namesake, Pablo Picasso.
The medical condition can happen to a variety of other animal species, as well as dogs, and doesn’t cause any pain, but it does make it much harder for pets to be adopted.
Despite daily challenges as a result of their deformities and Newt’s medical issues, the pair now lead very happy lives.
Wilhardt said: ‘It was a miracle that Picasso survived being a baby, because it would have been very hard for him to even nurse from his mother.
‘Newt has had many more challenges, surprisingly, the bigger challenges not being caused by his lack of upper jaw.
‘Both Picasso and Newt adore people, so in public, they are very outgoing and seek attention and love to greet people.
‘Most people do immediate double takes and then stare at the dogs for a while, trying to make sense of what they are seeing.
‘They are not in any pain; they have adapted to their physical challenges and do almost everything they want to do.’
Picasso and Newt both have facial deformities, and live with Founder and director of Luvable Dog Rescue, Liesl Wilhardt, 53, on 55 acres of land at their home in Eugene, Oregon
Picasso was born with a twisted snout, while Newt suffered an injury from his mother biting him that left him with no upper jaw
Mutant cow
The mutant cow was born at a farm in Kentucky last year with two heads, including four eyes and ears, and two mouths and noses.
The Tarter family was left shocked by the bizarre birth, which they were told is ‘one in 400 million’.
Cassie Tarter, 20, said: ‘He had two heads, four ears, four eyes, two noses, two mouths, and two tongues.
‘He was very short-backed, but he also had his spine inverted into his chest cavity. His back legs were deformed, and he had a very short tail.’
Two-headed animals often face a multitude of health problems, and though this one was born alive, it lived only a short time.
As well as an abnormal spine, the calf had a cleft palate in one of its mouths, arthrogryposis in its legs, and an underdeveloped rectum.
Tarter said: ‘I learned that there are two ways this can happen: one is DNA RNA replication, another is being twins that stopped growing and started to be ‘absorbed’.
‘We did an autopsy on him in my physiology and reproduction class and found out his organs were perfect for just one calf, so it wasn’t a twin that stopped growing.’
The mutant cow was born at a farm in Kentucky last year with two heads, including four eyes and ears, and two mouths and noses
As well as an abnormal spine, the calf had a cleft palate in one of its mouths, arthrogryposis in its legs, and an underdeveloped rectum
The Tarter family were left shocked by the bizarre birth, which they were told is ‘one in 400 million’
Two-headed calf
A baby calf with two heads, four eyes, and two mouths became a local attraction in Gangaikondan, South India.
A video taken on January 1, 2022, showed lines of curious spectators queuing up to see the newborn creature lying in a shed with its mother.
A woman could be seen bottle feeding the calf, while another held its head up so it could drink the milk.
The farmer, identified only as Murugan, had to bottle feed the newborn as its two heads were too heavy for it to lift, leaving it unable to suckle from its mother.
Animals born with more than one head, known as polycephaly, barely live more than a few months.
The condition results from genetic abnormalities or damage sustained in the nervous system during the development and splitting of embryos.
A baby calf with two heads, four eyes and two mouths became a local attraction in Gangaikondan, south India
Two-headed tortoise
In 2021, a rare two-headed tortoise was filmed slowly crawling across a table by scientists after it was discovered in south-western Turkey.
The unusual baby reptile was found by a tourist at the Pamukkale hot springs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, who called conservationists to alert them about the creature.
The two-headed tortoise, which was thought to be just four weeks old, would not have survived in the wild and was taken to the Pamukkale University Biology Department, where researchers studied the creature.
Footage showed the two-headed tortoise working together and moving in a synchronized manner to move themselves steadily down the table, using their six legs.
Dr Eyup Baskale, a faculty member at the Pamukkale University Biology Department, said that although the tortoise had two heads, it shared a single digestive system with only one exit point.
Tortoises can live up to 150 years, but in the wild, the survival chances of this reptile would have been very low, according to the scientists.
In 2021, a rare two-headed tortoise was filmed slowly crawling across a table by scientists after it was discovered in south-western Turkey
Two-headed snake
An extremely rare two-headed snake stunned its handlers by bucking all predictions of its imminent demise as it approached its 17th year in 2022.
The black rat snake, which is really snakes sharing one slithering body, grew to five feet long and exceeded the life expectancy of its regular counterparts in the wild.
The rare serpent was found by a boy in his yard in the small town of Delta, Missouri, in 2005 and brought to Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center.
Alex Holmes, a naturalist at the conservation center, described some of the challenges he faced keeping such an unusual snake alive.
‘A normal snake their size would be capable of eating full-sized mice with ease,’ he said.
‘But their conjoined spine makes it more difficult to swallow all but very small, young mice, which they take thawed from frozen.
‘The heads are quite competitive when they eat, so we cover one head at a time with a drinking cup and feed each individually.
‘We wait a period of time to make sure the food has passed their junction to avoid a ‘traffic jam’ from the left and right head’s meals meeting in the esophagus.
‘They share a stomach, but we feed them both to stimulate their instincts and provide some mental enrichment.’
Snakes can be born with two heads when an individual egg is fertilized and starts to divide into twins, but doesn’t fully separate.
In this case, the developing embryo split partially at the top but failed to separate further down. Its exact date of birth is unknown.
An extremely rare two-headed snake stunned its handlers by bucking all predictions of its imminent demise as it approached its 17th year in 2022
The rare serpent was found by a boy in his yard in the small town of Delta, Missouri, in 2005 and brought to Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center
Snakes can be born with two heads when an individual egg is fertilized and starts to divide into twins, but doesn’t fully separate
Long-eared goat
A goat with gargantuan ears reignited her breeder’s hope of beating a world record, which he claimed was won by one of his other animals – whose ears reached a whopping 22 inches in length.
Simbi’s ears measured a whopping 21 1/2 inches – not far off the length of her fellow big-eared goat Simba.
The tawny-coated kid goat was just two-months-old when she came close to breaking the record in 2023.
Her breeder, Mohammad Hassan Narejo, showed off the little goat’s impressive wingspan for pictures at his home in Karachi, Pakistan.
Simbi is thought to be a Nubian Goat, whose ears on average extend around an inch below their faces.
When Simba was born, his ears were 19 inches (48cm) long, but they did not seem to stop growing. In just a month, another three inches were added to their length.
Narejo said he fed Simba milk three times a day and took other steps to ensure his well-being.
You might think having such low-hanging ear lobes would be impractical, but the breeder revealed his remarkable solution to stop his animals’ ears getting in the way.
‘I got a special velvet harness or pouch to keep his ears, so he can run and play with ease without entangling his ears,’ Narejo told Reuters.
Simbi’s breeder, Mohammad Hassan Narejo, showed off the little goat’s impressive wingspan for pictures at his home in Karachi, Pakistan
The tawny-coated kid goat was just two-months-old when she came close to breaking the record in 2023
Simbi’s ears measured a whopping 21 1/2 inches – not far off the length of her fellow big-eared goat Simba
