Case file · Cryptid

The jackalope of Douglas, Wyoming

In the early 1930s (usually dated 1932) hunters Douglas and Ralph Herrick of Douglas, Wyoming, grafted deer antlers onto a jackrabbit and sold the mount to a local hotel, launching the American jackalope.

1932 CE · 42.76, -105.38 · status: hoax

The account

They went on to make many more for shops across the West. Douglas calls itself the 'Home of the Jackalope' and once issued tongue-in-cheek jackalope hunting licences.

The sceptical view

A taxidermy joke; the horned-hare idea may partly reflect real rabbits deformed by the Shope papilloma virus.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia: Jackalope
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