Rare two-headed sea turtle found on South Carolina beach in US; picture goes viral

The two-headed sea turtle. Image courtesy: Facebook

A picture of a two-headed sea turtle, found on a beach in South Carolina in the United States, is currently grabbing everyone’s attention on social media. One of the park’s sea turtle patrols spotted the two-headed creature at Edisto Beach State Park.

Posted by South Carolina State Parks on Facebook, the intriguing image has gone viral.

As per park official, the two-headed sea turtle might be the product of a genetic mutation.

“Three to five days after a sea turtle nest shows signs of a major emergency, we dig down to determine the success of the nest by counting the hatched eggs, unhatched eggs and on occasions also find live hatchlings,” the viral post stated.

Click here to check out the post.

The two-headed turtle was found during a routine inventory of sea turtle nests and the park’s sea turtle patrols eventually released it into the ocean. Shared on 24 July, the post has garnered over 1.8k reactions, 216 comments, and 1k shares.

In the post, park officials further explained that volunteers dig up the nests of sea turtles in order to count the number of live baby turtles as well as hatched and unhatched eggs.

While it was the first two-headed turtle found by this particular crew, such creatures have been spotted in South Carolina in the past as well.

For the unversed, the sea turtle patrols in the US are the volunteers who walk the beaches looking for loggerhead turtle nests from June to August.

Apart from this, volunteers also pick scraps and fill in holes using sand that might create difficulties for the hatching turtles.