Officials in Idaho have been left baffled after a mountain lion was discovered with a shocking deformity.
The beast was killed legally by a hunter on December 30th, but was reported by conservation officers after they discovered a set of teeth and whiskers growing from its forehead.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has proposed two possible theories for the big cat’s mutation, although investigations will continue.
A statement from the department read:
Idaho Fish and Game cannot definitively explain why this abnormality developed on this mountain lion. It is possible that the teeth could be the remnants of a conjoined twin that died in the womb and was absorbed into the other fetus. It is also possible that deformity was a teratoma tumor.
These kinds of tumors are composed of tissue from which teeth, hair, and even fingers and toes can develop. They are rare in humans and animals. Biologists from the southeast region of Idaho Fish and Game have never seen anything like this particular deformity before.
According to the BBC the lion was hunted after attacking a dog in the town of Weston.
That is the stuff of nightmares.
