Rare mutant turtle with two heads found by US beach volunteers

Are two heads better than one? South Carolina beach patrol made a rare discovery last week. Photo / Chris Mikael, Unsplash

A turtle patrol in a US marine park made a "very rare find" while inspecting nests of loggerhead turtles. Last weekend, Edisto Beach State Park took to social media to share the discovery of a teenage mutant, two-head turtle.

Every late summer to autumn park in South Carolina relies on volunteers to help with their loggerhead conservation programme.

"We dig down to determine the success of the nest by counting the hatched eggs, unhatched eggs and on occasions also find live hatchlings," said South Carolina State Parks.

Volunteers reported inspecting a nest mound in which they found three hatchling loggerhead turtles. Or, should that be a loggerheads turtle?

South Carolina reported a 'very rare find' on one of their beach patrols. Photo / Supplied

"One hatchling in particular stood out because it had two heads!"

Remarkably, the double-headed turtle appeared to be in good health.

The two headed sea creature was "the result of a genetic mutation" said the park, but it isn't the only report of the mutation.

The State Parks said it had reports of other twin-headed turtles in recent years but this was the first account on Edisto Beach.

Edisto Beach State Park sea turtle patrol had a very rare find during a routine nest inventory. Three to five days after...

Posted by South Carolina State Parks on Saturday, July 24, 2021

As well as surveying hatchlings, patrol volunteers work to mark out the nests to stop them being trampled by tourists. Other workers volunteer for night patrols, earlier in summer watch the animals arrive ashore to lay their eggs, two to three weeks before the "boiling" season - when hatchlings emerge and make their way to sea.

"It is one of nature's greatest wonders, not only the boil but the whole process. It is believed that a female loggerhead may travel thousands of miles to return to the beach where she hatched to lay her own eggs as an adult."

After taking photos of their find, volunteers say they released all three hatchlings into the sea.

Polycephaly, a mutation in which an animal develops more than one head, is a rare occurrence but less so in the case of reptiles according to the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle Project.

Each female sea turtle lays up to 100 eggs in a cluster, making the odds significantly higher. There are reliably one or two cases reported a year.

However, two heads are not necessarily better than one.

There are many complications around the development of spinal cord and organs, which mean that many two headed turtles do not survive to adulthood, according to the Project's Dr Minnie Liddell.

"The survival of sea turtle hatchlings is already very low," said Dr Linnell. "It is estimated that only one in one thousand sea turtle hatchlings survive until adulthood."