ROME -- A deer with a single horn in the centre of its head - much like the fabled, mythical unicorn - has been found in a nature preserve in Italy.
The Roe Deer was born in captivity in a park in the town of Prato, near Florence.
He is believed to have a genetic flaw. Single-horned deer are rare, but the central positioning of the horn is even rarer.Original Source : http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/2008/06/12/5850056-sun.html
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A deer with a single horn in the centre of its head - much like the fabled, mythical unicorn - has been spotted in a nature preserve in Italy.
"This is fantasy becoming reality," Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Centre of Natural Sciences in Prato, said. "The unicorn has always been a mythological animal."
The one-year-old Roe Deer - nicknamed "Unicorn" - was born in captivity in the research centre's park in the Tuscan town of Prato, near Florence, Tozzi said.
He is believed to have been born with a genetic flaw; his twin has two horns. Calling it the first time he has seen such a case, Tozzi said such anomalies among deer may have inspired the myth of the unicorn.
Original Source : http://arbroath.blogspot.com/2008/06/unicorn-deer-found-in-italy.html
