The image of a jackalope is sold on all kinds of novelties, from postcards to shot glasses in the American West, although a big question and heated debates on its existence.
The creature, described in Live Science as an animal with a "jackrabbit and the antlers" of a deer or antelope, is the region's cultural icon. At one point, tourists could even purchase taxidermied and mounted jackalopes for $35 or even cheaper.
As indicated in this report, even though no such hybrid animal exists, there's a hint of truth in the legend, professor Michael Branch of literature and environment at the University of Nevada, Reno said.
Branch, a book author, added, "it is a mythological creature." However, it does bear an actual association to honored rabbits in nature afflicted with papillomavirus.
ALSO READ: New Study of Eurasian Eagle Owl Diet Reveals Threatened Giant Bush-Crickets
Hunters amateur taxidermists were able to sell their first mounted jackalope to an owner of a hotel in the 1930s.
Papillomavirus
Rabbits are not growing horns naturally. However, the rabbits are not growing horns naturally. However, rabbit papillomavirus can make it possible.
Papillomaviruses are typical in numerous species, and each type usually infects members of a particular host species, explained Branch. One main example is the human papillomavirus or HPV, detailed on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
Essentially, when the rabbit papillomavirus infects a rabbit, it can lead to the growth of a benign tumor out of its head or face that at times is similar to horns or antlers.
At times, the tumor, made of keratin, that same protein forming hair and fingernails, growing on other parts of the body, although it is more common on the head, explained Branch. The tumors can turn malignant in some other rabbits.
Nevertheless, such growths do not always look similar to antlers. They are frequently black, asymmetrical, and not almost as majestic as the jackalope's antlers.
Discovery of the Infection in Rabbits
In the early 1930s, Richard Shope, an American virologist, found that the rabbit papillomavirus, shortly after called Shope papillomavirus, led the infected rabbits to grow features similar to horns, a study carried out in 2015 and published in PLOS One journal specified.
Until then, most researchers did not believe that virus could result in cancer. There was some evidence that viruses could also lead to cancer in birds.
Nonetheless, researchers were skeptical and undoubtedly did not think it could occur in a mammal. The horned rabbit proved the scientists wrong.
Shope also explained that the study opened up many avenues of studies to look into what other cancer types might result and, eventually, to work toward the vaccine's development against them.
Horned Rabbit
Specifically, it enabled researchers to start developing a vaccine for HPV, which can lessen the risk of cervical cancer and several other types of the illness.
Not all rabbits are stricken with the Shope papillomavirus develop horns, just like not all humans who have HPV develop cancer.
Branch explained, though, that the illness is frequently deadly in rabbits that do. The horns can disrupt the ability of the animals to eat, and they die from starvation.
A horned rabbit may have inspired the myth about the existence of the jackalope myth, although that's far from sure. The jackalope originally came from two teenage brothers from Doughlas, Wyoming.
According to Branch, the teens invented the "thing on their own." They were hunters amateur taxidermists, and they were able to sell their first mounted jackalope to an owner of a hotel in the 1930s.
Related information about jackalopes is shown on Interesting Topics' YouTube video below:
RELATED ARTICLE: Endangered Philippine Monkey-Eating Eagle Hatches Chick in Captivity
Check out more news and information on Animals in Science Times.