AOL News has reported that like some sort of mythological hydra, a bearded dragon with two heads and six legs was born just outside of Dayton, Ohio and is now residing at California’s Venice Beach Freakshow.
The almost three-month-old two-headed bearded dragon arrived safely at Freakshow owner Todd Ray’s doorstep last week, shipped from Ohio through an animal transport company. As with most of his freak animals, Ray discovered the conjoined-twin lizard on an online forum.
The original owner had never seen anything like it, but after two months of caring for the remarkable creature, the hobbyist breeder had grown attached to it, but Ray says he persuaded him to make the sale for $5,000:
“I told him, this is what we do. These are the types of animals that we’re used to taking care of and that we love to bring to the public so that they can see these living miracles… he was excited about that. He didn’t want them to end up in someone’s home or in a situation where they might not make it.”
According to Ray, the two-headed bearded dragon — dubbed Pancho and Lefty — move with relative ease, although sleep can occasionally be a struggle when Pancho wants to rest, but Lefty doesn’t. Lefty will start walking and dragging his twin in a desired direction. When Pancho inevitably wakes up, he’ll start pulling the other way.
Ray closed the Freakshow for several days in order to stay home and ensure the double dragon was adjusting to its new environment. Of course, much of that time was spent just watching the lizard — or lizards — in fascination:
“They’re amazingly cute,” he said. “And their colors are really nice.”
He plans to showcase them at the Freakshow once they’ve gotten bigger and are comfortable in front of people. A special terrarium designed to control the high levels of humidity at the beach will be set up for them in their new home:
“I could be making money now, but their value is much more than money. The typical freak show mentality is to get the money. We’ll get the money, but we make sure we protect these animals because they’re beyond special.”
