Throughout his life, 81-year-old Wen Fangqing has seen a lot of strange things, but he certainly did not see the two-headed calf born to his neighbor, cattle breeder Gan Yuanhua. Both live in Lingshui in Sichuan province in southwestern China. The two-headed calf was born on February 14th from a healthy cow that had previously given birth to three healthy calves.
Gan said that the calf did not seem to be uncomfortable with two heads, other than the fact that it died shortly after birth. Local veterinarian Xu Kaiwen attributed the incident to a genetic mutation, while everyone who saw the animal shouted, "Two-headed!"
Meanwhile, residents of the eastern Ethiopian city of Dyre Dawa, suffering from drought and food shortages, received a double gift - a rain of fish. According to a front page article in the Ethiopian Herald newspaper, the mysterious incident occurred on January 31 at 11:30 am.
The reports did not indicate how many fish fell in the minutes it rained. However, this was big news in Ethiopia. The Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries sent "a team of professionals to investigate the causes and consequences of this phenomenon, the first of its kind in the country."
Efrem Mamo, head of the meteorology department at Haromaya University, pointed out that if storms, high winds or typhoons can usually cause fish rains, then on that day, before the fish fell, there was clear weather in Hole Daua and there was no strong wind.
Where did this fish come from? Again, the reports do not indicate what species of fish were found, although the Decatu River flows through the Hole Daua, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden are nearby and are full of fish.
The two-headed calf is sad, but easy to explain. The fish rain in Hole-Daua pleased me, but turned out to be somehow mysterious. Would you eat fish that fell from the sky?
