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You've heard of a headless chicken, but how about a bodyless fish?

This astonishing aquatic creature defied all odds - by managing to swim despite not having a body.

The defiant animal continued to propel itself through the water with just its head and its fins after it was caught and gutted by a fisherman.

In the description alongside the clip, it explains that the 33-second footage was captured in the Maldives.

The caption, originally written in German, reads: "A fisherman in the Maldives catches a fish. He gutted the fish. The fish swims further without body."

More than 964,000 people have viewed the footage.

But some YouTube users were not impressed by the video, deeming it a case of animal cruelty.

Mutant goldfish dumped in rivers growing 10 times their normal size

One wrote: "Its so cruel," while another added: "How could you torture this fish without any hesitation?"