Mar Balauag, a backyard hog raiser, was surprised when he discovered that his pig gave birth to a two-headed piglet on Wednesday, April 3 in Barangay village, Santo Domingo in Isabela.
The 30-year old man said 13 of the pig’s first piglets were all normal, so he was shocked to see that the 14th piglet had two heads.
After a long time raising piglets, he said this was the first time that he encountered a two-headed piglet.
The piglet weighs at one kilogram and appears to be weak, which is why they immediately took it to the local veterinarian.
Rare two-headed mammals
Justin Adams, who studies anatomy across the animal kingdom at the Monash University, explained that two heads can result from the incomplete splitting of an embryo. He added that it is possible for two separated embryos to incompletely fuse and form a two-headed animal.
He added that two-headedness does not tend to be inherited, especially since two-headed animals do not live long enough to reproduce.
