A piglet born with the face of a monkey has baffled locals and prompted both experts and social media users to speculate on what could have caused the defect.
The facial deformity resulted in the mutant pig having a simian jaw, a considerably shorter snout and a protruding forehead so that it resembled a monkey.
Its peculiar appearance led it to being branded ‘monkey pig’ after images of it surfaced on social media websites and quickly went viral.
A video of the strange creature showed it being held by its owner as crowds gathered to get a closer look at it in the city of Ciego de Avila in central Cuba.
The pig quickly became something of a local tourist attraction, with people coming from across the area to take pictures of its remarkable features before it died just four days old.
One bystander could be heard commenting: ‘One of a kind, never seen before,’ after catching a glimpse of the baby animal.
According to local media, the owner visited a vet and was told that the piglet had been born with a congenital defect, which caused its strange appearance and untimely death.
Holoprosencephaly – a brain development disorder that can cause the failure of eyes to properly separate – could be the cause given that the pig’s eyes were positioned very close together.
