The Jackalope
The Jackalope Among myth and legends there is none so fun as jackalopes. Postcards featuring jackalopes can be found at numerous tourists shops all across America. Everyone pretty much thinks it is all in fun, but is there really any truth to such a creature? The answer is "yes" and "no". In America, the town of Douglas, Wyoming claims the honor of being the "Ho  me of the Jackalope", even declaed to be so by the Governor of the State. Check out the photo of their small town's 10 foot tall jackalope statue. The Douglas Chamber of Commerce even issues Jackalope Hunting Licenses, but only one day out of the year is it legal to hunt jackalopes - June 31st (I hope you caught the humor in that).The ledgendary jackalope is a hybrid of a jack rabbit and an antelope. The stories about this mythical creature are boundless. A word search on Google will give you 2,460,000 web sites dealing with jackalopes. Even President Ronald Reagan had a mounted jackalope head on the wall of his ranch house with which he had a lot of fun whenever journalists were there for a visit (it is on the wall today).  Evidence of rabbits with horns goes back four centuries in Europe, and even further back in Asian cultures. Buddha even mentions a horned rabbit in one of his spiritual lessons. There is a painting by the Flemish Renaissance painter Joris Hoefnagel showing a rabbit with horns, as well as many articles in publications in the 17th century dealing with horned rabbits.
The Science Museum of Minnesota has had exhibits of rabbits with horns. It was in their biology section because the horns are actually cranial tumors produced by the rabbit disease "papillomatosis". This unfortunate phenomenon is caused by the Shope papillomavirus (in humans it produces genital warts). So this is probably the origin of the jackalope stories. In the spirit of the popularity of the jackalope, someone has even offered proof of their existence on YouTube. It is a one minute video that proves beyond a shadow of doubt that jackalopes are for real (tongue in cheek). Check it out at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWVcaJrqSro |
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