Fake Unicorns and Real Unicows

 

I am defining a "real" unicorn as any animal with a horn on its forehead and a resemblance to the mythical unicorn. It is a real animal in that it exists, but also referred to as a "false unicorn" because it is not the actual mythological creature. The examples presented below fall into four general categories.

​

1) Freak: An animal's horn or antler position may vary due to a congenital defect or a trauma that relocates a horn bud to the central position where it heals and eventually attaches to the skull. This class of unicorn are often deer, photographed in the wild.

​

2) Construct: Most constructs are assemblages of dead animal parts. They differ from 'hoaxes' in not being presented as real--but made as works of art or craft. Live constructs are created when an animal's horns are surgically relocated to the center of the forehead. The most common method is to relocate both horn buds so that they grow together in a single large horn. Constructs are most often goats, and sometimes cows,

 

3) Hoax: A physical hoax is when the bones or other parts of other animals may be combined with horns to create the appearance of a unicorn mummy or skeleton. There are also digitally hoaxed images made using Photoshopped pictures and fake videos.

​

4) Humanicorns: Humans with a grown on the skin the protrudes to give a horn-like appearance. A similar syndrome can occur in other animals such as mice.

​

If you came here with the question of whether the legendary unicorn does exist, my opinion is that they do not and never have--but this has not stopped people from trying to find or create them.

​

Art Unicorns

In 2008 Damien Hirst created pickled pony unicorn entitled The Dream. He also created a piece called The Broken Dream which is a sawed off unicorn's head, and a decayed unicorn head called Grotesque Unicorn.

Also in 2008 Borre Saethre created an art installation in New York that centered on a realistic unicorn in a glass-fronted room. Sarina Brewer, a creative taxidermist has also created a unicorn. ​Other taxidermy unicorns ave been made by GravityKills (2008) and horse unicorn (2009).

​​

Unicorn Deer

A unicorn female deer was taken by a hunter near Mt. Spokane in Washington (2014) and a deer with an even more impressive horn was taken in Slovenia, it's preserved skull can be seen here.

​

The Prato Unicorn: In 2008 the unicorn deer  was observed in an Italian research park. This roe deer has a normally horned twin. Although unicorns generally occur by injury or deliberate transplant, it was speculated that this deer-corn was produced by a congenital defect. Some speculated that the Prato unicorn proved that unicorns had a basis in fact. There are some pictures from 2011 that seem to be of the same animal.

​

Mummy Unicorn

Pictures of a small mummy can be found at various locations on the internet. I have not determined their source of even whether this is a hoax or just an art project (2007)

​

Unicorn Goats and Sheep

The California Unicorns: Otter G'Zell/Zell-Ravnheart created a series of unicorn goats, one of which (Lancelot) was exhibited in 1985 Ringling Circus. "The Living Unicorn" entranced and disillusioned a generation of children visiting "the Greatest Show on Earth". These unicorn goats seem to have been produced by the same method as the 1936 Maine unicorn. I have given this entry a date of 1984 based on the filing date of a United States patent on producing this kind of unicorn.

​

Unicorn Cows

1936 Maine Unicorn: This uni-cow was produced deliberately by transplanting both horn buds to the forehead so that they grow and combine into a single large horn.

​

2006 Eastern States Expo exhibit: Another unicorn cow was on exhibit in 2006.

​

2010 Unicow: A naturally occurring "unicow" with two normal horns and one unicorn-like horn has been reported in China.

​

Human Unicorns

1931 Ripley Exhibit: Perhaps the best known human with a cutaneous horn was a Chinese farmer known as Wang. He was documented for Ripley's Believe or Not and a wax likeness can still be seen today,

Other example include: 93-year-old Ma Zhong Nan of China (2007)

These cutaneous horns can occur on any part of the body, but are more common in areas exposed to the sun, such as the fingers or ears. They also occur in other species, such as mice

​

Unicorn "Fossils"

1663 Otto Von Guericke's Unicorn: Otto Von Guericke assembled prehistoric bones from the so-called "Unicorn Cave" in Germany. into a putative unicorn. It was subsequently shown to be a hoax chimera assembled from the bones of the rhinoceros, mammoth and narwhal.

​

Unicorn Horns

Throughout history, but particularly in the medieval period, there has been a trade in artifacts represented as unicorn horns. The horns were considered to have medicinal properties and also to bring good luck. Many surviving examples have been determined to be narwhal horns. A person drinking from a goblet made of unicorn horn was thought to be immune to poison. These goblets were made predominantly from narwhal or rhinoceros horn.

​

​