Six-legged calf 'romping happily around farm'

A newborn black Angus calf romps about a farm just like any other – only this one does it on six legs.

“He’s a real freak,” said Brian Slocum, who said the calf was born on Sunday to one of his cows on his farm in central Nebraska. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

The two extra appendages – one a front leg, the other a back – extend from the calf’s pelvic area.

The longer of the two extra legs does not quite reach the ground, and they do not interfere with the calf’s mobility.

The unnamed calf also has organs for both sexes and a surgically supplied rectum.

David Smith, a veterinary specialist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said the calf’s twin sexes indicated the embryos for what might have been fraternal twins had probably fused during development, producing one calf with extra parts.

Such calves are rare, usually plagued with internal problems and do not live long, cattle experts say. But so far, Slocum said, the 85lb calf seems as frisky as the others born on his farm.

“I’m curious to see what happens,” he said.