南非发现的二头龟
Rare Two-Headed Tortoise Found in South Africa
Candice Swarts in Cape Town
For National Geographic News
May 30, 2003
Fantasy books are filled with stories about two-headed dragons and two-headed monsters, but who has ever heard of a two-headed tortoise?
This is exactly what Noël Daniels, a welder of Wellington, Western Cape, South Africa, discovered when he went into his backyard and found this strange newcomer hatched from an egg amongst his pet tortoises.
Daniels is the owner of seven tortoises, as terrestrial turtles are commonly known. They live with his parrots and pigeons in a dovecote. The strange tortoise's shell is flat underneath and not rounded at the belly as usual, he says.
The two heads are joined separately to a shared body.
"But it seems quite normal and both heads feed on grass, leaves, and softened rabbit pellets," Daniels said. "When it gets scared, however, [the] heads move in different directions as if confused. Sometimes its legs also want to move in different directions. Luckily, it moves quite slowly. There seems to be enough time to figure out which way to go."
The month-old tortoise's shell is about five centimeters (two inches) wide.
Ernst Baard, manager of scientific services of Cape Nature Conservation, an expert on South African tortoises, said that the phenomenon of two heads is extremely rare. To his knowledge, it is only the second reported case of its kind in South Africa in over 20 years. The other one was discovered in the early 1980s.
谢谢大家,终于翻译出来了:
国家地理新闻
开普敦
2003 年5月 30 日
童话故事里描写了很多双头龙和双头怪兽,但有人听说过双头
龟吗?诺威尔.Daniels 是南非开普敦西边的
一个焊接工,它养着7只海龟和鹦鹉和鸽子。一天当它走进自己的后
院发现了那个奇怪的蛋被孵出来了。“这个龟的腹甲比正常的龟要
平坦,不像它们那么圆”Daniels说。这个龟龄满月的龟龟大约5厘
米(2英寸)宽。这两个分开的头“共享”一个身体,但是它似乎都
能正常地吃草,叶子和兔子的便便。l Daniels说:“当它受到了惊
吓时,它的头无论如何都有不同的逃跑想法,导致行动不一致,”
有的时候它脚的行动也不协调,总是想往不同的方向走。好在它的
行动十分缓慢,有足够的时间来决定行动方向。
南非开普敦的自然保护科学的龟类专家Ernst Baard认为这个龟
十分稀罕。根据他的记载,这种双头龟在南非近20年内只有两起报
告。另一起报告是在1980年初期。
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