Finding A Two-Headed Tortoise

These tortoise pictures prove it. Two-headed creatures are no longer the stuff of legend and myth but a startling reality.

This angulate tortoise was discovered in Wellington, Western Cape South Africa and it has two heads that are joined separately to a shared body. But it seems quite normal otherwise and both heads feed on grass, leaves, and softened rabbit pellets.
This species seldom grows bigger than 22 centimetres (eight or nine inches), and has a lengthened straw-colored shell with somewhat raised shields that are black in the middle and on the sides.

Male angulates grow larger than the females and they are shy and reserved, usually retreating into their shell at the first disturbance. They drink rather more infrequently than other species but take in a large amount of water at one time. They submerge their heads when drinking which can be rather alarming when first encountered.

This 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.

There are a total of 43 species of these reptiles worldwide and 13 of them can be found in South Africa including the highly endangered geometric tortoise.