Here's something that I'd bet money wasn't on your bingo card for today: Rabbits in Colorado are growing horns. No, they aren't jackalopes; just regular, run-of-the-mill bunnies. But relax; it's not the sign of some fast-approaching pandemic. It's actually a fairly common thing.
While papillomaviruses aren't uncommon, most of them are pretty specific to a certain species or general. The cottontail papillomavirus only affects lagomorphs, which group includes rabbits, hares, and pikas. But folks are still finding Colorado's horned bunnies alarming, which is understandable. Fortunately for the bunnies, they can overcome the virus with no lasting damage, other than to humans' nerves.
"Rabbit papillomas are growths on the skin caused by the cottontail rabbit papillomavirus," Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) says on its website, as some people in the state have reported the strange sightings.
"It looks like it was black quills or black toothpicks sticking out all around his or her mouth," Fort Collins, Colorado, resident Susan Mansfield, who saw one of the rabbits, told 9News. "I thought he would die off during the winter, but he didn’t. He came back a second year, and it grew."
Colorado's Parks and Wildlife points out that the condition, horrifying as it is, is normally temporary.
"Most infected cottontails can survive the viral infection, after which the growths will go away," CPW says. "For this reason, CPW does not recommend euthanizing rabbits with papillomas unless they are interfering with the rabbit’s ability to eat and drink."
While this virus is specific to lagomorphs, there are at least 170 human papillomaviruses specific to humans, spread across 5 genera.
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Here's the interesting thing about all this: Could these unfortunate critters be the source of one of the American West's most enduring legends - the jackalope? Mythology.net describes the jackalope thusly:
A Jackalope is a creature that is thought to be a strange jackrabbit and deer or antelope hybrid. It is characterized as having the body of a rabbit and the antlers of a deer. Most of the depictions of a Jackalope show an animal that has horns that are branched like that of a deer, but there are some variations that show the creature with the smooth horns of an antelope.
I lived in Colorado for many years, and also spent a lot of time in Wyoming, hunting, camping, fishing, and just generally woods-bumming. I've never seen a jackalope, other than the obviously made-up taxidermy projects that are found in general stores, lunch counters, and bars in the area. But then I've never seen a Bigfoot or a Chupacabra, either, for the same reason I've never seen a live jackalope: They don't exist. But these bunnies, with their odd head growths - which drop off with no permanent harm when the bunny recovers from the virus - may well be the source of the legend.
The American West is a fabled place, with many tales of adventure, mystery, and strange creatures. But now, we may just have been gifted with some insight into the source of one of those legends. Remember that, next time you encounter one of those amusing jackalope mounts.
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