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Description
From the tag: "In 1945, Mike, a chicken from Fruita, Colorado, survived decapitation and lived for 18 months. Mike, who was actually a rooster, traveled the country and curious onlookers could see the headless wonder for the mere price of 25 cents. The town of Fruita now celebrates its most famous celebrity with an annual headless chicken festival."

The story of how this apparent miracle happened is, like most of the large-scale illusions of grand magicians, fairly simple. In a creature's brain, the most basic of bodily functions are buried low in the brain stem, situated at the base. What went on with Mike was that when the head was cut off, the severance wasn't complete and the part of the brain that governed the inborn life functions like walking and eating survived in the remaining stem. What finally caused his death was that his open windpipe, which was how he ate, finally grew over as any sufficiently-sized wound will do. With nowhere to breathe from, Mike finally died, a year and a half late.

Description
From the tag: "In 1945, Mike, a chicken from Fruita, Colorado, survived decapitation and lived for 18 months. Mike, who was actually a rooster, traveled the country and curious onlookers could see the headless wonder for the mere price of 25 cents. The town of Fruita now celebrates its most famous celebrity with an annual headless chicken festival."

The story of how this apparent miracle happened is, like most of the large-scale illusions of grand magicians, fairly simple. In a creature's brain, the most basic of bodily functions are buried low in the brain stem, situated at the base. What went on with Mike was that when the head was cut off, the severance wasn't complete and the part of the brain that governed the inborn life functions like walking and eating survived in the remaining stem. What finally caused his death was that his open windpipe, which was how he ate, finally grew over as any sufficiently-sized wound will do. With nowhere to breathe from, Mike finally died, a year and a half late.