Locals were baffled by a one-eyed cyclops puppy born in the Philippines.
The bizarre male creature was born from a healthy Aspin mother dog who gave birth to a single litter in Capiz province on June 20 evening.
Aside from having a single huge eye on his forehead, the male pooch had two strangely-shaped ears flapping out of the corner of its mouth and no had no nose.
Pet owner Rhodora Villarisco planned to take the puppy to the veterinarians for a health check but it did not survive and died after only eight hours. The puppy was then buried on the family’s backyard that morning.
Rhodora said: ‘We heard our dog crying at night so we checked on her and saw the puppies already beside her. We tried to call the veterinary clinic but they were already closed and there is curfew at night so we could not go out.
‘The puppy didn’t take long and died early in the morning. It’s sad because our dog only had one child. I’m not sure what the reason for its strange appearance because our dog is healthy.
‘Maybe it’s because she always slept next to my child while playing on his phone. It could be because of too much radiation from the phone but I’m not sure.’
The puppy’s condition was called Cyclopia, a rare birth defect caused by an abnormality in the animal’s brain development. This leads to deformities of the head and the face among humans and animals and is linked to low survival rates.
Dogs normally have more than two offspring each time they give birth. They have an average litter size ranging from three to seven depending on the breed but sometimes they give birth to only a single puppy which is a rare condition called Single Puppy Syndrome.