The Jackalope
The horned rabbit of Western legend is mostly a taxidermy joke, but real rabbits with horns do exist.
What was reported
The jackalope, a jackrabbit with an antelope's horns, became a symbol of the American West after Douglas Herrick, a hunter and taxidermist in Douglas, Wyoming, fixed antlers to a stuffed rabbit in the 1930s and sold it to a local hotel. Mounts and postcards spread across the region, and Douglas calls itself the home of the jackalope.
Horned hares also appear in older European folklore and natural history books.
Explanations offered
The mounts are taxidermy, but the legend may draw on something real: rabbits infected with the Shope papilloma virus can grow hard, horn-like growths on their heads. The virus was identified in the 1930s in wild cottontails with such growths.
- When
- 1930s onwards
- Where
- Douglas, Wyoming, USA
- Witnesses
- Hunters, tourists and taxidermists
- Status
- Partly explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.