Creepy Animals

…they're really interesting.

Mar 29 2011

Animal Anomaly: Hexapus

six-legged octopus

This 'pus ain't no octo.

We love it when cephalopods get creepy. This six-legged octopus — a so-called Hexapus — lives at the Blackpool Sea Life Centre in England. It’s the only Hexapus known to man!

Though it’s technically a mutant and isn’t heavily armed, it gets by just as well as the eight-legged variety. Suckers.

Oct 3 2010

Animal Anomaly: Turtles with Constricted Shells

Turtle shell constricted by plastic milk jug ring.

Milk jug ring: the real no-diet diet.

These two turtles experienced a different kind of plastic surgery. When they were wee turtlettes, they crawled through plastic waste that stuck to their small shells, holding them captive to the ring’s circumference and inhibiting proper growth. As they got older, their exoskeletons amazingly grew around the plastic rings! Man messes with Nature. Nature messes with Man.

Obligatory PSA: Cut plastic rings before discarding. Prevent yet another turtle from turning into a creepy animal:

Turtle shell constricted by plastic soda can rings.

Another method of controlling one's waistline.

Sep 1 2010

Narwhal

Narwhals swimming.

A horn grows through the upper lip of this whale. This calls for a haiku.

narwhals are special,

unicorns of the arctic,

one tusk, sometimes two

Narwhal with two tusks.

Double tusk all the way. It's so beautiful.

Photo via National Geographic and jangeisler

May 26 2010

Animal Anomaly: One-eyed Kitten

Kitten with one eye on blanket.

Another example of the creepy-cute paradox? The evidence is before your eyes.

It was 2005 in Redmond, Oregon. Late one cold December night, a small kitten was born with just one eye, no nose and no eyelid. He was christened Cy (short for Cyclops) and passed away just one day later. Cy’s unique appearance was caused by a form of holoprosencephaly, a brain development disorder that can cause cyclopia — the failure of eyes to properly separate.

Jan 29 2010

Animal Anomaly: Two-toned Lobster

Lobster with two colors.

Buy 1 get 1 half off?

This Two-toned Lobster was caught by a lobster fisherman in Maine a few years ago. The color split is the result of a simple abnormality – half the shell lacks the blue pigment. We love this specimen so much because it looks as if it is half-cooked:

  • Brown = raw, live crustacean ready to take off your finger
  • Orange = tasty morsels ready to be dipped in melted butter

Fortunately, the Two-toned Lobster now lives in an aquarium for all to gawk at. It has been noted that the odds of finding a two-toned lobster is approximately 1 in 50 million.

Sep 28 2009

Animal Anomaly: Two-Faced Cat

Kitten with two faces.

Two-Faced Kitten, born in TX,

Twice as cute or twice as creepy? One brain or two? Do the kibbles go down a single esophagus? Poor little…kittykittens…kitty.

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