PETALING JAYA, Sept 2 — It was an unusual discovery for a turtle conservation team at Terengganu’s Tanjong Jara resort when they found a two-headed green sea turtle hatchling at one of its project sites.
The exciting news of the unique reptile was shared on the organisation, Lang Tengah Turtle Watch’s Instagram page yesterday.
Captioned, “Miracle found in a nest.
“Dicephalism (state or condition of having two heads) is a rare occurrence in sea turtles; thus, genetic factors may have played a significant role for this little one.
“Often, such rare findings were mostly non-viable ones. Nearly all recorded two-headed animals live for shorter periods than normal individuals.
“This miracle hatchling is now under the care of the Department of Fisheries (DoF) Turtle Conservation and Information Centre (TCIC) in Rantau Abang, where it will conduct monitoring and rehabilitation of sea turtles with special needs.
“As TCIC is only 15 minutes away from our project site, we are keeping our eyes closed on the hatchling’s development for as long as it lives,” read the post.
Meanwhile, it highlighted some interesting facts about the unusual reptile which includes how it has two heads, although sharing a similar morphology, the two heads would respond differently to external stimuli.
Many took to share the wonderful news by praising TCIC for rehoming the hatchling and monitoring the growth of the hatchling.
Others were simply in awe of the discovery of the miracle hatchling and found it cute.
