In May 2017, unnerving images and videos appeared purportedly showing a "cyclops" goat, bearing just one eye in the middle of its forehead:
Although many viewers were shocked and skeptical, the video is real. A goat with a syndrome called cyclopia was born in a village in Assam, India on 10 May 2017:
The kid was born on Wednesday May 10th, and has baffled local villagers.
Vets predicted that the goat, who also has only one ear, would die within a few days but he has defied expectations and stayed alive longer than expected.
The condition which causes these defects is called cyclopia.
The kid was also born without eyelashes and eyelids, is missing several teeth, and has an underdeveloped nose and jaw:
Cyclopia is often accompanied by other physical deformities. This baby goat is also missing eyelashes, eyelids, one ear, and several teeth; its jaw is severely shortened, and its nose underdeveloped.
Although the goat has one eye and is missing eyelashes, eyelids, one ear and several teeth, the animal's owner Mukhari Das called the animal a miracle:
"I was shocked. That's a miracle," said Bauer Mukhari Das after seeing the fresh-born baby goat with one big eye.
He called the veterinarian, and said, "The beast, whose ear is missing, will not survive the next few days. But that did it. Since the birth on 10 May, the black kid does not make any effort to say goodbye.
Although the syndrome is rare, it is not unprecedented. In the 1950s, a number of sheep were born in Idaho over a decade with birth defects that included cyclopia. In that instance, the issues were caused by sheep snacking on corn lilies, which contained a toxin now called, descriptively enough, cyclopamine. It was later developed into a cancer treatment.