A bizarre-looking fish has made waves on the internet in China because of its unusual 'bird' head. Some said the fish's head looks like a pigeon's or a parrot's head; while others argued it bears more resemblance to that of a dolphin. A local fishery expert said the strange creature is a deformed carp.
The creature, called 'bird fish' by web users, was reeled in by a number of anglers in Guizhou, south-west China, reported Guizhou Urban Newspaper. Video footage shows the odd fish gasping on the ground. While its body looks like a normal fish's body, its head has a distinctive, mismatched shape. The video has been circulating on Chinese online forums as well as on Facebook in the past week, leaving web users debating over what the creature really is. People have compared the shape of the fish's head to that of a pigeon, parrot or dolphin.
One Facebook user, called 'Hong Fang', questioned: 'Is this a cross-breed of carp and dolphin?' While another Facebook user 'Duan Yiching' said: 'It looks like a radioactive fish to me.' Fish expert at Natural History Museum told MailOnline that they 'can not identify the cyprinid fish' but the fish could be showing a deformity known as 'pug-head', which is often seen in fishes. Yang Xing, an expert from the Guizhou Fisheries Research Institute, told Guizhou Urban Daily that the bird-headed fish is actually a carp and it's deformed. The expert said deformation is commonly seen among the freshwater fish species. He carried on explaining the possible causes of the deformation. 'One possibility is that the embryo was damaged when it was growing; another possibility is that the lack of oxygen in the water due to over-crowded fishing farming - caused the fish's head to be deformed.' According to the report, the fish was set free by the anglers after being caught.