Kolkata, May 24:

A chicken has gone through a rare, spontaneous sex change in eastern India, a veterinarian said today.

The bird laid eggs six months ago — and some hatched — but it later began to grow a rooster’s comb, said Partha Sarathi Ghose, a veterinarian at West Bengal state’s Animal Husbandry Department, quoting the bird’s owner. Earlier this week Ghose and a team of experts visited Kamat-Chengrabanda where the incident occurred.

“Sure, it’s rare,” the vet said, adding that owner Haziruddin Mohammad has called the incident a miracle and refused to hand over the bird to the Animal Husbandry Department.