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Unicorn Spotted in Italy
One-Horned 'Unicorn' Deer Born in Italy
June 19, 2008

Kiddie’s fiction is always full of unicorns (which are always horses, preferably white, with a horn on their head). However, fiction may have become a reality, when a single-horned deer was spotted in an Italian natural reserve.

The Roe deer which was born in a research park near Florence has a gene anomaly: instead of having two horns, like his twin brother, the one year-old Roe deer has a single horn, making him look that mythical creature commonly found in legends and stories.

According to Italian specialists, this type of anomaly may have been discovered in the past and inspired the legend of the ‘unicorn’. There are of course, other single-horned deer, but they are very rare and usually their horn isn’t centered.

Other mammals are believed to contribute to the myth of the unicorn, including the narwhal, a whale with a long, spiraling tusk.

Stories about unicorns are thousands of years old and seem to evolve like in every new book or kid’s novel. The legend began with the story of Herodotus, the father of history, who mentioned it in the 5th century BC. The creature’s reputation and ‘rarity’ kindled the curiosity of some of the world’s most respected scientists and inventors. One famous example, in one of his notebooks, Leonardo Da Vinci wrote: "The unicorn, through its intemperance and not knowing how to control itself for the love it bears to fair maidens, forgets its ferocity and wildness; and laying aside all fear it will go up to a seated damsel and go to sleep in her lap, and thus the hunters take it."

Resources: Guardian.co.uk, Environmental Graffiti, Scotsman.com

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Comments

Added by tobi on September 04, 2008

what that guy above me said

Added by joey on August 31, 2008

actually thats a unideer lol

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