It\u2019s hare today, gone tomorrow \u2014 thanks to a face full of freaky tentacles.<\/p>\n
The grotesque \u201cFrankenstein\u201d-esque rabbits \u2014 once just a Colorado curiosity \u2014 are now turning up in Minnesota and Nebraska, their furry faces sprouting grotesque horn- and tentacle-like growths straight out of a B-movie.<\/p>\n
The unsettling deformities are the calling card of cottontail papilloma virus<\/a> (CRPV), also known as Shope papilloma virus \u2014 a bug that turns harmless bunnies into nightmare fuel.<\/p>\n The DNA-twisting illness is spread when mosquitoes, ticks, or fleas bite an infected rabbit and then pass it along to others.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the virus doesn\u2019t affect humans or pets like dogs and cats, wildlife officials are warning: look, don\u2019t touch.<\/p>\n Mother Nature\u2019s gone mad scientist on America\u2019s rabbits, with more and more \u201cFrankenbunnies\u201d emerging in two additional states. Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n First, the infection appears as small, red bumps. Then, as the virus works its dark magic, the spots erupt into wart-like tumors \u2014 which can harden into keratinized papillomas,<\/a> the bizarre \u201chorns\u201d and \u201ctentacles\u201d now haunting Midwestern lawns.\u00a0<\/p>\n In some cases, those warts morph into deadly skin cancer.<\/p>\n And this summer could be prime bunny-horror season: mosquito and tick numbers soar in the warm months, giving CRPV plenty of winged and crawling couriers to spread it across the heartland.<\/p>\n The freaky growths are the handiwork of cottontail papilloma virus \u2014 aka Shope papilloma virus \u2014 a bug that turns cuddly bunnies into straight-up nightmares. Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n Locals in Fort Collins, Colorado, have been spotting the deformed rabbits for weeks. Resident Susan Mansfield told 9News<\/a> she saw one with what looked like \u201cblack quills or black toothpicks sticking out all around his or her mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI thought he would die off during the winter, but he didn\u2019t,\u201d she said. \u201cHe came back a second year, and it grew.\u201d<\/p>\n On Reddit, one Minnesotan recently reported<\/a> seeing the phenomenon \u201cfor the last few years in Minnesota,\u201d adding that the rabbits around them \u201cdied off who had it.\u201d<\/p>\n Another chimed in<\/a>: \u201cThey\u2019re all over here in St. Paul. When I google them, it\u2019s hundreds of MN based photos.\u201d<\/p>\n Summer could be peak bunny-horror season: swarms of mosquitoes and ticks are spreading CRPV across the Midwest. Gunnar Boettcher\/AP<\/p>\n Meanwhile in Nebraska, one shocked resident posted a video<\/a> of a bunny with the same creepy, fleshy appendages sprouting from its head and dangling beneath its mouth.<\/p>\n CRPV isn\u2019t new \u2014 scientists have known about it for decades. In 2013, a Minnesota man\u2019s video of a tendril-ridden rabbit went viral, with viewers comparing it to the fabled Jackalope.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n