A haunting disease is plaguing colonies of bunnies in the US, turning these once 'perfect kids Christmas present' into something more aligned with Halloween.
Alright, that analogy is far from my best work, but let's continue, shall we?
A rare sighting of a 'Frankenstein' rabbit has shocked the internet, but what people don't know is that the beast wasn't made through an experiment by a mad scientist who fastened it to a chair and pulled a giant lever at the exact time lightning struck the tower in which it was housed.
No, unfortunately, the actual way in which 'tentacles' start appearing from their fluffy little faces is much more grim than that.
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They are suffering from cottontail rabbit papilloma virus (CRPV), also known as Shope papilloma virus, which is an oncogenic DNA virus, and is often carried by mosquitoes and ticks that bite the rabbit's skin.
What that means is the disease causes tumours, which in this case are found on the skin of rabbits, and it can also lead to them developing cancer - squamous cell carcinomas to be precise.
What is the impact of cottontail rabbit papilloma virus?
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The disease is potentially fatal if contracted by rabbits, although some will get over it in around a year; for others, it can lead to a slow, painful death.
That is, if its 'horns' begin to grow around its mouth and eyes. These warts can prevent bunnies from seeing and potentially blind them slowly, while also blocking them from eating, causing them to succumb to starvation slowly.
And while biting insects are often the cause of the disease, it can also be spread to other rabbits via direct contact, like through sharing food and water bowls, or bedding.
What do authorities say about the papilloma virus?
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) states that the tumors don't interfere with bunnies unless they block their sight and mouth.
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"The growths have no significant effects on wild rabbits unless they interfere with eating/drinking. Most infected cottontails can survive the viral infection, after which the growths will go away," it writes.
"For this reason, CPW does not recommend euthanizing rabbits with papillomas unless they are interfering with the rabbit’s ability to eat and drink."
But while it cannot spread from rabbit to human, CPW still recommends staying away from any infected rabbits.
The 'jackalope'
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With these fluffy bunnies being beast-like, similarities are drawn to that of the American legend - the 'jackalope', which is a mythical jackrabbit with horns of an antelope.
For decades, in schools across the country, students are told that it is just folklore - but there could have been some truth to it, with CRPV only having been discovered in Midwestern America back in 1933 by Richard E. Shope.
So when Suzanne Peurach, of US Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Centre, discovered the horny specimen in a box, she was in disbelief.
“When I pulled the rabbit out of the box, I thought this must be a joke. I went to school in Albuquerque [New Mexico] and everywhere you go there are jackalopes in biology professors’ offices and even being sold in stores,” she told Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, DC.
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"Those are fake animals, the result of people sewing taxidermy rabbits and deer antlers together. This rabbit was definitely not one of those."
Joe Yates