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Has anyone seen this? Two headed sulcata
- Thread starter Fredkas
- Start date
Pretty amazing. Thanks for sharing. I don't remember seeing this.
That's hard for me to look at.
I had not seen this. Amazing that it is doing so well. What a special person he must be to care for this unique animal.
Conjoined twins are known in animal world, and it is not that uncommon
here are feline twins. 
and snakes. It happens across species, only most of those twins don't survive without support in nature so we don't see them that much
here are feline twins. and snakes. It happens across species, only most of those twins don't survive without support in nature so we don't see them that much
I think the ones with a healthy living condition would be cool to own.
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Pretty amazing right? Look at the video, I feel their movement is unbalance. Sure it must be the struggle from that two head. I don't know why i feel a bit sad about that. But they sure amazing.
I could not get the link to open. It would be interesting to know what studies they have done on this animal and what the skeleton, nervous system, muscular system etc. looks like.
I think of this particular tortoise as actually to tortoises, two brains equals two organisms as far as I'm concerned. Especially because they look pretty much evenly formed. I really want to get this link to work!
I think of this particular tortoise as actually to tortoises, two brains equals two organisms as far as I'm concerned. Especially because they look pretty much evenly formed. I really want to get this link to work!
Awesome that its lived to 3 years. I wonder which brain controls the limbs.
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Will do you a favor
Meet Kianga, The Incredible Two-Headed Sulcata Tortoise That Was Born In Belgium!
Share on Facebook
Born in Waregem, Belgium in 1957, Rony Ryckoort has had a love and a fascination for animals since he was a little boy. He's had a deep love for all animals of the world, but his absolute favorite animal of all time was the tortoise.
When he first started keeping tortoises, he had a few European species, such as the Hermann's tortoise and the Moorish tortoise. But right after he bought his first pairs they had their first offspring.
And breeding these spectacular animals left him with a wonderful sense of accomplishment and his enthusiasm for tortoises grew day after day.
When Rony first began keeping the bigger species he bought his first adult pair of African spurred tortoises in 1990. It was love at first sight. He decided to sell all of his non-African species and specialize in African, species that lived in grasslands.
Even now, Rony dedicates his life to keeping and breeding African species of tortoises and teaching people all about these special animals. His main focus involves the African spurred tortoises and the pancake tortoises, both of which he has huge groups of roaming around in his 'Tortoise room'.
The largest specimens of African spurred tortoises that he has, weigh about 220 pounds and are thought to be more than 100 years old.
He has a huge outdoor area, that's decorated with big rocks, fig and olive trees and even a small pond, where all of his adult African spurred tortoises can move about freely. A huge, heated indoor space is enough shelter for all 13 of his adult African spurred tortoises.
And naturally Rony has had many offspring come into the world from his animals! His tortoises have close to a thousand babies each year, and those are now scattered all over the world.
On May 28th of 2012 an extra special little miracle was born under Rony's care. Weighing in at only 0.028 pounds, a two-headed baby African spurred tortoise came into the world. It wasn't until the entire day went by before Rony first realized that the tiny hatchling wasn't like its brothers and sisters!
The two-headed baby had a difficult time absorbing its yolk sac and closing up its plastron. But it did finally succeed at both jobs.
Rony decided to call his little two-headed wonder a very fitting name. It was called 'Kianga', which is an African name that means 'Sunshine'.
It was quite obvious to Rony that one of the two heads was more dominant than the other. It began eating a few days before the second head decided to. And even now the head on the left is the most dominant one!
It makes the decision as to where Kianga goes and what it eats. Certainly, it was important to Rony that the newborn wasn't in pain or distress because of her 'difference'. Because a lot of animals born with two heads have some kind of health issues to deal with. These problems can prevent them from having a pain free and normal life. And just a few of the animals born with two heads are able to live long and healthy lives.
So, to find out if his ray of sunshine was healthy or not, he got in touch with some of Western Europe's best reptile veterinarians and asked if they would give Kianga a close look. Most of the veterinarians came to the conclusion that the tortoise's health was excellent and they made the decision to wait and see if the tortoise would grow, eat and generally 'live' like it should, before they would take any further steps.
Rony dedicated his life everyday to making sure that Kianga was taken care of in the best possible way. He even slept on the sofa for more than a year after she was born, checking on her every few hours to make sure that everything was alright.
Kianga's father
Rony decided after three years had gone by to get the vets back together to perform a whole body scan of the three year old, two-headed tortoise. And what the scan revealed was incredible. It gave insight as to why she was thriving even with her malformation.
The only thing that was malformed on Kianga is situated in her spinal cord, just at the end of her neck. The spinal cord has a 'Y'-junction, which allows her to have two heads, each one with a perfectly formed brain and cervical spinal cord, two tracheas that lead to one set of normal lungs, two esophagi that lead to one normal sized stomach and one beating heart!
In a nutshell: only Kianga's heads and necks are doubled, everything else in her body is as normal as the body of any other tortoise. And according to experts, Kianga is most likely going to live a long and happy life. With the excellent care provided her by Rony, she'll most likely outlive him and possibly even her next caretaker!
Now, Rony's goal is to make sure that everyone in the world see's Kianga. He's shown her to audiences all over Belgium and the Netherlands with some help from the H.E.R.P. (The Herpetological Education and Research Project).
This organization focuses on the education of young and old about reptiles, amphibians and arthropods and is lead by Laura Ruysseveldt and Bryan Minne, both of whom are biologists/herpetologists and professional animal experts that specialize in herpetofauna. As a partner of this organization, Rony has been featured on the news many times too.
He's had lots of offers from zoos and reptile parks from all over the world, who would love to get their hands on this magnificent reptile. But the love that Rony has for Kianga is much too deep to ever part with her.
Meet Kianga, The Incredible Two-Headed Sulcata Tortoise That Was Born In Belgium!
Share on Facebook
Born in Waregem, Belgium in 1957, Rony Ryckoort has had a love and a fascination for animals since he was a little boy. He's had a deep love for all animals of the world, but his absolute favorite animal of all time was the tortoise.
When he first started keeping tortoises, he had a few European species, such as the Hermann's tortoise and the Moorish tortoise. But right after he bought his first pairs they had their first offspring.
And breeding these spectacular animals left him with a wonderful sense of accomplishment and his enthusiasm for tortoises grew day after day.
When Rony first began keeping the bigger species he bought his first adult pair of African spurred tortoises in 1990. It was love at first sight. He decided to sell all of his non-African species and specialize in African, species that lived in grasslands.
Even now, Rony dedicates his life to keeping and breeding African species of tortoises and teaching people all about these special animals. His main focus involves the African spurred tortoises and the pancake tortoises, both of which he has huge groups of roaming around in his 'Tortoise room'.
The largest specimens of African spurred tortoises that he has, weigh about 220 pounds and are thought to be more than 100 years old.
He has a huge outdoor area, that's decorated with big rocks, fig and olive trees and even a small pond, where all of his adult African spurred tortoises can move about freely. A huge, heated indoor space is enough shelter for all 13 of his adult African spurred tortoises.
And naturally Rony has had many offspring come into the world from his animals! His tortoises have close to a thousand babies each year, and those are now scattered all over the world.
On May 28th of 2012 an extra special little miracle was born under Rony's care. Weighing in at only 0.028 pounds, a two-headed baby African spurred tortoise came into the world. It wasn't until the entire day went by before Rony first realized that the tiny hatchling wasn't like its brothers and sisters!
The two-headed baby had a difficult time absorbing its yolk sac and closing up its plastron. But it did finally succeed at both jobs.
Rony decided to call his little two-headed wonder a very fitting name. It was called 'Kianga', which is an African name that means 'Sunshine'.
It was quite obvious to Rony that one of the two heads was more dominant than the other. It began eating a few days before the second head decided to. And even now the head on the left is the most dominant one!
It makes the decision as to where Kianga goes and what it eats. Certainly, it was important to Rony that the newborn wasn't in pain or distress because of her 'difference'. Because a lot of animals born with two heads have some kind of health issues to deal with. These problems can prevent them from having a pain free and normal life. And just a few of the animals born with two heads are able to live long and healthy lives.
So, to find out if his ray of sunshine was healthy or not, he got in touch with some of Western Europe's best reptile veterinarians and asked if they would give Kianga a close look. Most of the veterinarians came to the conclusion that the tortoise's health was excellent and they made the decision to wait and see if the tortoise would grow, eat and generally 'live' like it should, before they would take any further steps.
Rony dedicated his life everyday to making sure that Kianga was taken care of in the best possible way. He even slept on the sofa for more than a year after she was born, checking on her every few hours to make sure that everything was alright.
Kianga's father
Rony decided after three years had gone by to get the vets back together to perform a whole body scan of the three year old, two-headed tortoise. And what the scan revealed was incredible. It gave insight as to why she was thriving even with her malformation.
The only thing that was malformed on Kianga is situated in her spinal cord, just at the end of her neck. The spinal cord has a 'Y'-junction, which allows her to have two heads, each one with a perfectly formed brain and cervical spinal cord, two tracheas that lead to one set of normal lungs, two esophagi that lead to one normal sized stomach and one beating heart!
In a nutshell: only Kianga's heads and necks are doubled, everything else in her body is as normal as the body of any other tortoise. And according to experts, Kianga is most likely going to live a long and happy life. With the excellent care provided her by Rony, she'll most likely outlive him and possibly even her next caretaker!
Now, Rony's goal is to make sure that everyone in the world see's Kianga. He's shown her to audiences all over Belgium and the Netherlands with some help from the H.E.R.P. (The Herpetological Education and Research Project).
This organization focuses on the education of young and old about reptiles, amphibians and arthropods and is lead by Laura Ruysseveldt and Bryan Minne, both of whom are biologists/herpetologists and professional animal experts that specialize in herpetofauna. As a partner of this organization, Rony has been featured on the news many times too.
He's had lots of offers from zoos and reptile parks from all over the world, who would love to get their hands on this magnificent reptile. But the love that Rony has for Kianga is much too deep to ever part with her.
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- Apr 5, 2016
- Messages
- 933
From the video i can see they both control the body. It just which one is more dominant.
Someone needs to tell them sulcata torts shouldn't be housed in pairs.
(Obviously joking)
(Obviously joking)
itiswhatitis
Active Member
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2016
- Messages
- 133
If It's Funny It's Funny !!! Lol
Thank you for printing out the story. I couldn't see the video but that's OK. I don't see a reason why the stores couldn't live a very Long time. I guess if there's going to be conjoined twins with two brains this would be about the best way to do it. Very interesting.
Elizabeth Patti
New Member
so, would you give this tortoise one name or two names? i think this lil guy/girl is adorable..... wonder if they get irritated because one wants to go one way, and the other wants to go the other way. lmao.. just playing ..
Big Ol Tortoise
Well-Known Member
2 headed turtles/tortoises aren't as rare as you'd think.. sadly.
