Bald Chicken!

It was one of 2,000 chicks born on a remote farm... but this is the bird that caused a real flap. Mr Feather, as he's been cruelly dubbed, won't feel cock-a-hoop though. That's because the poor chicken was born completely bald - and has remained so ever since.

"Stop staring at my naked body!"

Not only does Mr Feather look fowl, he must be a temptation to hungry humans - being oven-ready after all - and he's even had cats chasing him round. But, so far, he's survived. The bird of no feathers hatched in China's Shandong Province five months ago and since then he has become a local celebrity.

"Go away, Mr. Cat! Don't eat me!"

Cock: "You're naked! Shame on you!"

According to owner Lao Yin, people have been flocking to his farm restaurant in Laoshan to get a bird's eye view of him. "Some customers are dedicated to coming to visit him,' Lao said.

Mr Feather, or Ha Mao in Chinese, has put on weight very slowly, weighing less than half a kilogram while its feathery friends weigh two to three kilograms. Lao added: 'I started to notice it was different 10 days after its birth, as others were fluffy, while he is almost naked.'

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MORE BALD CHICKENS 

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Scientists have bred a controversial featherless chicken which they say is faster growing. The birds, created at the Hebrew University in Israel, will not need to be plucked, saving money in processing plants.

While the researcher behind the breed concedes that they would not be suitable for cooler countries, he says that in hot climates, the birds would fare better. However, opponents of the move say that the changes do not benefit the animals, and are in fact likely to make their lives worse.

Professor Avigdor Cahaner, who led the project, told the BBC: "This is not a genetically modified chicken - it comes from a natural breed whose characteristics have been known for 50 years. "I am just transferring that to fast growing broiler chickens. It's a normal chicken except for the fact it has no feathers." 

He said that broiler chickens were fed intensively to achieve fast growth, which meant they also tended to produce a lot of body heat; and this meant that particularly in hotter countries, they "suffer tremendously". The featherless birds would tend to be leaner, and perhaps grow faster, he said, which would improve the quality of the meat and save producers money.

Removing the plucking process would also reduce pollution, he said. The process, he claimed, produced large quantities of water contaminated with feathers and fat. However, animal welfare groups warned that feathers were important to help protect the birds from parasites - and that the featherless chickens were likely to suffer sunburn. In addition, male chickens might not be able to mate, they argued.