The bizarre virus turning harmless rabbits into terrifying, tentacle-faced creatures has been spotted by more Americans, sparking fears that a wildlife crisis is emerging.
The ‘Frankenstein’ rabbits recently made headlines in Colorado, as locals reported seeing the infected animals wandering through neighborhoods.
However, the sightings have not been isolated that state. Residents in Minnesota and Nebraska have shared more images and stories of these deformed rabbits popping up.
The rabbits are infected with the cottontail papilloma virus (CRPV), also known as Shope papilloma virus, which causes horn- or tentacle-like tumors to grow around the animals’ heads and faces.
Wildlife officials have urged people who see any rabbits with these growths to stay away and not touch them.
The DNA-altering virus spreads when mosquitoes, ticks, or fleas bite an infected rabbit and then transmit CRPV to other rabbits.
Since mosquito and tick seasons peak during the warmer summer months, cases of the potentially fatal condition could soon skyrocket throughout the Midwest.
After being spotted multiple times in Fort Collins, Colorado, users on Reddit have now reported seeing infected rabbits near the major cities of St Paul and Minneapolis.
‘My neighborhood is filled with cottontails with Shope papillomavirus,’ one St Paul resident said on Reddit last month.
‘Same in Minneapolis. By mid-late summer it seems all the surviving new rabbits have it,’ another Reddit user replied.
Other Minnesota residents noted that rabbits who did not show signs of the virus had actually become a rarity in the area.
Scientists noted that CRPV rarely spreads through direct contact between these rabbits, and there are no known cases of insects infecting people with it through a bite.
The first sign that a rabbit has the virus is red, raised spots on their skin that eventually turn into wart-like tumors.
In many cases, these warts develop into keratinized papillomas, the ‘horns’ and ‘tentacles’ seen growing out of rabbits’ heads.
However, some of the warts can turn into a squamous cell carcinoma, a serious skin cancer that can be deadly if it spreads and isn’t treated early.
After the recent sightings in Colorado, state parks and wildlife officials noted that other pets, such as dogs and cats, should be immune to the infection as well.
Fort Collins resident Susan Mansfield compared the tumors to ‘black quills or black toothpicks’ sticking out of the rabbits, adding that local witnesses thought the animals would die off during the winter months, which did not happen.
In Nebraska, residents also spotted tentacle-covered rabbits continuing to survive in the snow earlier this year.
The virus is not thought to be painful unless the growths affect a rabbit’s eyes or mouth, interfering with their ability to eat, causing them to die of starvation.
Some on social media have questioned whether euthanizing infected wild rabbits would stop the spread.
‘Is it more humane to kill them when [they’re] like that or just leave them alone?’ one person posted on Reddit.
‘Put him out of his misery,’ another person declared.
Despite some people feeling that it would be compassionate to end the rabbits’ suffering, animal control officials in the US have not made any kind of recommendation supporting this
Colorado Parks and Wildlife added that the virus does not pose a public health risk to people or other species, so the best course of action is to simply leave the rabbits alone.
Rabbits that contract the virus have often been the source of stories about the mythical ‘jackalope,’ which is a rabbit with antlers of an antelope.
Stories and illustrations of horned rabbits have appeared in scientific books dating back many years, such as the Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique from 1789.
Online, many people commenting on the recent explosion in CRPV sightings have referenced the mythical creature.
‘So jackalope myths could have a realistic historical precedent?!’ one person on Reddit asked.
According to Smithsonian, taxidermist Douglas Herrick was credited with creating the jackalope myth after he and his brother Ralph mounted antelope horns on a jackrabbit they had killed in the 1930s.
However, it’s believed that the brothers from Wyoming may have been inspired to create the hoax after spotting real cases of CRPV in the wild.
