A chicken from the in central Thailand has been hailed as a “true warrior” for surviving more than a week after being decapitated.

It has now been adopted by monks who are feeding it by pumping food into its throat with a syringe.

The headless chicken first made news headlines earlier this week, after photos and videos of it went viral on Thai social media, but no one actually expected it to survive so long without a head.

Facebook user Noppong Thitthammo was the first to share the story of the resilient bird, along with photos showing the mangled remains of its neck.

Antibiotics

He wrote that a vet in the Mueang Ratchaburi district of Ratchaburi Province had been caring for it, feeding it by dropping food down its neck and giving it antibiotics to prevent the infection of its wounds.

“The animal has its life. If it wants to live, we feed it,” Supakadee Arun Thong, the vet who had adopted the headless bird, told Thai reporters.

Nobody seems to know how the chicken lost its head, although many suspect it must have been attacked by an animal predator.

Regardless of the circumstances in which it lost its head, everyone agrees that the decapitation should have proved fatal, but the bird refuses to die. And not only is it still alive, but it can also stand and walk around aimlessly.

Photoshop

At first, most people thought that the whole thing was a hoax, and that the photos of the headless chicken had been photoshopped, but then a video of it started doing the rounds online, and western news outlets started picking up the story as well.

Believe it or not, this is not the first time chicken to survive without a head. Mike the headless chicken was also a media sensation between 1945 and 1947, surviving a whopping 18 months.

He too was believed to be a hoax, until his owner took him to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City for confirmation.