Animal rescue workers were going about their day in July 2024, when a box of kittens was brought in. At first glance, while the situation was very sad, it didn’t seem like anything too out of the ordinary. The staff at True Rescue in Tennessee are trained to deal with abandoned and neglected animals, after all.

In this case, the four kittens had been discovered inside a duct-taped cardboard box with no air holes. Someone had fortunately spotted them dumped outside a fence before a garbage truck arrived.

According to the shelter, the kittens were around 8 weeks old when they arrived. They were underweight and had upper respiratory symptoms. Upon closer inspection, staff discovered something else that had them intrigued. One of the kittens had four ears.

“We were both very taken aback. That’s not something any of us affiliated with True Rescue have ever seen, probably the rarest of genetic abnormalities that we’ve heard of,” said Kristin Condit, director of operations for the shelter.

True Rescue staff introduced the “ear-resistible” kitten to the world via a Facebook post. They uploaded a reel the following day, revealing that the kitten has an extremely rare genetic mutation that’s completely harmless. “We decided to name this kitten Audio because he has built-in surround-sound speakers!” reads the post.

Audio immediately became an internet sensation because of his cute and unique features, with several media outlets picking up the story. The shelter received hundreds of adoption applications, but in the end, they decided that Audio was too special to be let go.

“We have been really stressed about how we would find the right applicant, and ultimately for his own safety and our own sanity, I've decided to adopt him,” True Rescue executive director Amy Simcik told Forbes. Audio has since become an ambassador animal for the shelter.

Audio isn’t the first cat to go viral for having four ears. Midas made headlines in 2021 when he was adopted by a woman in Turkey. The Russian Blue mix also sports quadruple ears, and has been described as a perfectly healthy cat that has no problem hearing.

Midas’ genetic mutation shot him to fame almost immediately. His Instagram account has garnered 339k followers since it was created. His "first day at home" post got over 7,000 likes, while a pretty portrait has received more than 1.8 million.

While Audio and Midas’ unique features have worked in their favor, and made them “ear-resistible” and loved, some bigger cats aren’t as lucky. Africa’s white lions have a recessive gene that gives them their unusual pale color. They’re extremely rare and sought-after by trophy hunters.

White lions went "technically extinct" for 12 years before they slowly started reemerging. Today, there are estimated to be only 13 in the wild. And a few hundred in captivity.

Experts say white lions aren't appropriately classified and remain at risk of being wiped out completely. Some are calling for the rare big cats to be considered a "subspecies" so they can be better protected.

"Currently, there is no law nationally or internationally that protects the White Lions from being wiped off the face of the earth," warned The Global White Lion Protection Trust.

"Furthermore, the disastrous down-listing by CITES of South Africa’s lions to Appendix II 'least concern' has increased the demand for lion parts/bones of both captive lions and wild lions, putting lions under greater threat of extinction."

While genetic mutations occur naturally in the wild, some breeders have come under fire for purposely creating “mutant” animals. In 2015, some South African breeders and ranchers made headlines for engineering wildlife for the sole purpose of trophy hunting.

As Bloomberg reported back then, some of the rare animals created included "white lions with pale blue eyes, black impalas, white kudus, and coffee-colored springboks."

“We breed them because they’re different,” ranch-owner Barry York told Bloomberg. “There’ll always be a premium paid for highly-adapted, unique, rare animals.”

In 2024, an 80-year-old American rancher was caught engineering giant sheep to sell to hunting lodges. According to court documents, Arthur “Jack” Schubarth used the biological tissue of a large-breed Kyrgyzstan sheep to create a giant sheep hybrid.

He had received the tissue from a hunter and carried out his illegal "breeding" in a lab before impregnating an ewe who would later birth a mutant giant sheep known as Montana Mountain King. That sheep then fathered others, who each carried a price tag of up to $10,000.

As the Guardian reported, Schubarth and at least five other people were in cahoots from 2013. "Their goal was to garner high prices from hunting preserves where people shoot captive trophy game animals for a fee."

Schubarth pleaded guilty to wildlife trafficking and conspiracy to traffic wildlife. And was sentenced to 6 months in jail. He was also ordered to pay a $20,000 fine to the Lacey Act Reward Fund, a $4,000 payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and a $200 special assessment.

“Mr. Schubarth's actions not only violated multiple laws designed to protect wildlife, but also risked introducing diseases and compromising the genetic integrity of our wild sheep populations," said Assistant Director Edward Grace of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Law Enforcement.