Hunter harvests cougar with odd deformity

A hunter in southeastern Idaho harvested a cougar on Dec. 30 with a rather odd deformity, and a photo of the animal has gone viral.

On Dec. 30, 2015, the cougar (or mountain lion as they are sometimes called) was seen attacking a dog on a landowner's property. The landowner tracked the cougar and harvested it legally the same day.

What he found when he approached the big dead cat was something of a surprise.

The cougar had a set of fully formed teeth and what seem to be small whiskers growing out of the tissue on the left side of its forehead, Idaho Fish and Game officials said in a news release.

Officials said the teeth could be the remnants of a conjoined twin that died in the womb and was absorbed into the other fetus. It is also possible that deformity was a teratoma tumor. These kinds of tumors are composed of tissue from which teeth, hair, and even fingers and toes can develop.

They are rare in humans and animals. Biologists from the southeast region of Idaho Fish and Game have never seen anything like this particular deformity before.