Frankenstein rabbits with tentacles spread…
It’s hare today, gone tomorrow — thanks to a face full of freaky tentacles.
The grotesque “Frankenstein”-esque rabbits — once just a Colorado curiosity — are now turning up in Minnesota and Nebraska, their furry faces sprouting grotesque horn- and tentacle-like growths straight out of a B-movie.
The unsettling deformities are the calling card of cottontail papilloma virus (CRPV), also identified as Shope papilloma virus — a bug that turns innocent bunnies into nightmare fuel.
The DNA-twisting sickness is spread when mosquitoes, ticks, or fleas chunk an contaminated rabbit and then move it along to others.
While the virus doesn’t have an effect on people or pets like canines and cats, wildlife officers are warning: look, don’t contact.
Mother Nature’s gone mad scientist on America’s rabbits, with more and more “Frankenbunnies” rising in two extra states. Universal Images Group via Getty Images
First, the infection seems as small, crimson bumps. Then, as the virus works its darkish magic, the spots erupt into wart-like tumors — which may harden into keratinized papillomas, the weird “horns” and “tentacles” now haunting Midwestern lawns.
In some circumstances, those warts morph into lethal pores and skin cancer.
And this summer season may very well be prime bunny-horror season: mosquito and tick numbers soar in the nice and cozy months, giving CRPV loads of winged and crawling couriers to spread it across the heartland.
The freaky growths are the handiwork of cottontail papilloma virus — aka Shope papilloma virus — a bug that turns cuddly bunnies into straight-up nightmares. Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Locals in Fort Collins, Colorado, have been recognizing the deformed rabbits for weeks. Resident Susan Mansfield told 9News she noticed one with what appeared like “black quills or black toothpicks sticking out all around his or her mouth.”
“I thought he would die off during the winter, but he didn’t,” she said. “He came back a second year, and it grew.”
On Reddit, one Minnesotan just lately reported seeing the phenomenon “for the last few years in Minnesota,” including that the rabbits around them “died off who had it.”
Another chimed in: “They’re all over here in St. Paul. When I google them, it’s hundreds of MN based photos.”
Summer may very well be peak bunny-horror season: swarms of mosquitoes and ticks are spreading CRPV across the Midwest. Gunnar Boettcher/AP
Meanwhile in Nebraska, one shocked resident posted a video of a bunny with the same creepy, fleshy appendages sprouting from its head and dangling beneath its mouth.
CRPV isn’t new — scientists have identified about it for many years. In 2013, a Minnesota man’s video of a tendril-ridden rabbit went viral, with viewers evaluating it to the fabled Jackalope.
While the virus is innocent to people, it may be lethal for the rabbits — sometimes growing so large that the twisted protrusions block their mouths, inflicting hunger, as per The Daily Mail.
Reddit customers from Minnesota and Nebraska are sharing sightings of the freaky, tentacle-faced rabbits hopping through their neighborhoods. Reddit/Different_Try3353
And in home bunnies, the growths can lead to squamous cell carcinoma, a probably deadly pores and skin cancer.
With no treatment, specialists warn to keep pets away, resist the urge to “help,” and sadly let nature — however nightmarish — run its course.
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