Single-horned 'Unicorn' deer found in Italy

So much for all those doubters who did not believe in unicorns and who insisted they were only a myth.

I say, an intelligent scientist should never say, never.

Definitely a cute critter.

Dude, when this unicorn can fly, then maybe we will stop being doubters. No one has EVER said that a deer could not be born with one horn, that's not what makes the Unicorn mythological, it's the fact that they are supposed to fly and have magical powers.

Unicorns don't fly, that's a Pegasus. And as for the magical powers...that's the unicorn's horn, not the unicorn itself.

yesterday front page 'monkeys that know how to fish', today its 'unicorns are real'...

what will it be tomorrow?

all must be honky dory in the world lately. just don't look past the front page.

Disturbing that newsvine seems to be effected by mainstreams desire to avoid serious news. It seems just another arm of the octopus keeping people under-informed.

God Forbid we cover news that matters and stick that on the front page... oh like the president of the USA having thirty-five articles of impeachment thrown at him. Or how about the deliberate defamation and targetting of Venezula and Chavez using shoddy 'evidence' and blatant lies?

I mean - our world is on fire and they're blabbering about 'unicorns'? ::sigh::

I'll bet eating that horn will cure ED for good. Hypothetically, I might have a friend with $50k to spare. Hypothetically, how much unicorn horn would this buy for my friend? And does anyone know of a dealer for my, ahh, friend?

I think you're giving Viners too little credit. Just because the main article on the front page is about this "unicorn" doesn't mean that's the only thing we look at. And the article about the president having 35 articles brought against him is on the front page.

Yes, this is fluff. Yes, there are thousands of stories out there more "important" than this one. But those of us here who have an iota of intelligence browse the Vine to find stories of importance that interest us. But I bet a lot of people would never have even noticed a story about this deer without it being on the front page.

We're an intelligent group, give us the credit we deserve.

(By the way - if you think it's so worthless, why did you click on it, thus promoting it as news we care about?)

When I've been at it debating the welfare state, war and occupation, impeachment, super powerful gamma rays and the price of oil, I really need a bit of light relief: Bring on the unicorns!

I don't know that this is fluff anyway. Those interested in mutations and genetics and science would find this to be really interesting.

Personally, I'm bored of the sort of political crap-fest that dominates the front page anyway, much of it filled with worthless commentary by the masses.

I can see the tape holding it on!

Cat Lady, actually you made me go look harder, and if my depth perception is anything, that looks like a weed or flower poking up behind his head from the field.

Edit: Or not. I don't know anything.

Brian, we agree again, we can't have that, now can we?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_deer

Guess what dudes, and it's not good. If you look at the photo of a different Roe Deer in the velvet and then look at this one you can see that the antlers on Roe Deer are very closely set. This is not a one antlered deer, it is a one antlered deer. One fell off!

This is not a one antlered deer, it is a one antlered deer.

what?

This is not a deer that has grown one antler in the center of it's head, it is a normal deer who has lost the second antler. The remaining antler is positioned properly for a normal deer. The normal placement for these antlers is together at the center of the head. You can see that the one remaining antler is slightly off center which is the normal placement.

Without closer inspection, it's still fair to say it's a possibility that the deer was born this way. Because the antlers don't grow in until later, we may not know what happened, but it could go either way. It could just as easily be a broken/missing antler as it's been a single antler along.

Frankly, I don't buy the "lost an antler" argument. Wouldn't there be some evidence if that were the case? It's no mean feat to lose an antler, after all. If you're basing your argument on one picture, I don't feel you've enough evidence to proclaim with such certainty that it simply "lost" an antler.

I also disagree that the placement looks "natural" based on the other pictures in your link.

In the article it says that the deer was born in captivity and observed to have only one horn where its twin had two. This isn't a deer that was observed once with what looks like one antler - it's a year-old deer that they know only has one antler.

If the faun had an injury early in life, that may suppress the growth of the other antler. It will be interesting to see if the animals grows two next year. I still think that it is a double antlered animal that has only one.

Cat Lady --
With all due respect I think you are wrong. The horn does look dead center to me, not offset. And you will notice from the Wikipedia pic that the normal 2 antlers grow AWAY from each other, while this deer's horn grows straight up.
So possilbly we will get some followup pics on this deer as it grows, and maybe there will be other views besides this head-on shot. Who knows, maybe the glue will soften in the summer heat and the horn falls off, you never know. Meanwhile, we are having fun fantasizing, thank you.

The reason why I think that it is one of two antlers is because of the build up on the left side of the horn which would be where the two horns would have touched. I have no idea if I am correct, these are just my observations. Also, I raise sheep and am familiar with the growth of horns. Unlike many of our viners, I never care much about being right or wrong. I just love discussing things and occasionally love to see somebody get really worked up (I have horns, too! HA) It will be interesting to see what it looks like when it falls off.

there is some footage of the deer here. The video isn't very good because of the grass.

Absolutely Pamela! And it does count in so many ways :)

Horn deformities are not uncommon. Taking a picture and putting it on line is. Most real hunters don't have computers. They spend all of their time in the woods.

It is one of the coolest things yet!

Good call.

And this deer will shed its antler, and I'm sure that there are people out there who will want to get their hands on it thinking that it might have magical powers.

We all know that, Don't spoil it, we're having a bit of fun here. Remember "the suspension of disbelief"?

No, I don't.

Why does the media persistently blow all things scientific out of proportion? I think they have fun feeding factoids to the proles (metaphorical proles of course).

Unicorn only only means one horn ... uni...corn:

There are a lot of myths associated with it.

unicorn Look up unicorn at Dictionary.com c.1225, from O.Fr. unicorne, from L.L. unicornus (Vulgate), from noun use of L. unicornis (adj.) "having one horn," from uni- "one" (see uni-) + cornus "horn" (see horn). The L.L. word translates Gk. monoceros, itself rendering Heb. re'em, which was probably a kind of wild ox. According to Pliny, a creature with a horse's body, deer's head, elephant's feet, lion's tail, and one black horn two cubits long projecting from its forehead. Cf. Ger. Einhorn, Welsh ungorn, Bret. uncorn, O.C.S. ino-rogu.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=u&p=6

Medieval knowledge of the fabulous beast stemmed from biblical and ancient sources, and the creature was variously represented as a kind of wild ass, goat, or horse.

and

In heraldry, a unicorn is depicted as a horse with a goat's cloven hooves and beard, a lion's tail, and a slender, spiral horn on its forehead.

more:

The Japanese kirin is depicted as a bearded one-antlered deer.

More:

The connection that is sometimes made with a single-horned goat derives from the vision of Daniel:

And as I was considering, behold, a he-goat came from the west over the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. Daniel 8:5

In the domestic goat, a rare deformity of the generative tissues can cause the horns to be joined together[citation needed]; such an animal could be another possible inspiration for the legend.

more:

In Southern Africa the eland has somewhat mystical or spiritual connotations, perhaps at least partly because this very large antelope will defend itself against lions, and is able to kill these fearsome predators. Eland are very frequently depicted in the rock art of the region, which implies that they were viewed as having a strong connection to the other world, and in several languages the word for eland and for dance is the same; significant because shamans used dance as their means of drawing power from the other world. Eland fat was used when mixing the pigments for these pictographs, and in the preparation of many medicines.

This special regard for the eland may well have been picked up by early travellers. In the area of Cape Town one horned eland are known to occur naturally, perhaps as the result of a recessive gene,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn

Thanks Shaun,

That is useful information. Do you like hand shadows? Try to imagine what animal I am depicting.

I vaguely recall Julius Caesar mentioning the unicorn among the fauna of Gallia. He didn't claim to have seen one, though. I say, good thing this unicorn isn't a moose, not nearly as cute.

I say, good thing this unicorn isn't a moose, not nearly as cute.

She is a cute one.

Wow Shaun. That is great information, thank you for that. : )

I will stick to my fantasy of my Unicorn/Pegasus the beautiful mythical creatures that they are. We can still dream cant we? I hope so.

Great article. I so needed a break from Politics and other things.. : )

Wow Shaun. That is great information, thank you for that. : )

Thanks, Anna. I am glad you liked the information.

We can still dream cant we? I hope so.

Yes we can and should, IMO.

I so needed a break from Politics and other things.. : )

I totally resonate.

What an odd little video, and it's got over 9 million views.

SHUN! Shun the unbeliever!

In other words, Carole, Joseph doesn't know either, apparently.

The answer is yes; I said "duh" didn't I?

Sorry, as I haven't been in the 7th grade for about 18 years, now -- I'm a bit hazy on the exact meaning of the phrase "duh".

I don't know what it means either, Brian. I think it's the sound of sudden realization, but that's just my guess. Let's see what comes by way of explanation.

Genetically speaking what would the chances of a single horned animal, mating with a two horned animal, coming up with another single? Is it 50/50?

It depends on the genetic makeup of the deer it mates with. Think of it in a punnitt square formula for genotype. The single horned deer has two recessive genes for that horn mutation. If it mates with a deer that is a carrier of the gene for the single horn then it would be a 50% chance that one of the deer's children would have the single horn (but it would also need to be male to see the genes expressed) If the deer that it mates with is not a carrier of the mutation then none of the children will be born with a single horn. 100% of it's children would at least be a carrier of the gene but it would require them to mate with another carrier of the gene to have a 25% chance of having a one-horned child.

It is not a single horned (antlered) animal. See above.

I think you're wrong. See above.

@Andimia - Thanks for that! Assuming we follow the single horn alleles and they do indeed fall under a straight dominant/recessive pattern... how about the placement in the center of the head? Is that simply a physical anomaly, or do you think that, too could be genetic? If so, I wonder if it would be hypothetically possible to breed "unicorn" deer?

This all depends on how many genes control the central placement of the horn. If it's more than one, or there are more than 2 alleles per gene, then the percentages change. It's not really possible to tell without breeding with this one, so let's do that!

Thank you so much for that link, I will have to study it Andimia.

yeah, I just kept with the a single allele theory because I didn't want to put too much effort into it. I used to want to be a botanical geneticist, among other things.

Andimia, I studied genetics in my undergrad years, and while I took zoology further it is actually the genetics of plants that is more interesting than the genetics of animals. Although in so many ways the fungi are cooler than the other two :)

It might have two asses as well!

HahaHaha, wait...what?

If they are doing it to promote their business, a zoo type where people always gain respect for animals and nature, then it is indeed a unicorn!

Well, I was looking at you with giddy admiration...but I'll stop if you say so.

Excuse me while I go have a tea party with the faeries.