, circa 1575, showing a "horned hare" Stories or descriptions of animal hybrids have appeared in many cultures worldwide. A 13th-century
Persian work depicts a rabbit with a single horn, like a
unicorn. In Europe, the horned rabbit appeared in
Medieval and
Renaissance folklore in
Bavaria (the
wolpertinger) and elsewhere. included the horned hare. These early scientific texts described and illustrated the hybrids as though they were real creatures, but by the end of the 18th century scientists generally rejected the idea of horned hares as a biological species. infection References to horned rabbits may originate in sightings of rabbits affected by the
Shope papilloma virus, named for Richard E. Shope, M.D., who described it in a scientific journal in 1933. Shope initially examined wild
cottontail rabbits that had been shot by hunters in
Iowa and later examined wild rabbits from
Kansas. They had "numerous horn-like protuberances on the skin over various parts of their bodies. The animals were referred to popularly as 'horned' or 'warty' rabbits." In
Central America, mythological references to a horned rabbit creature can be found in
Huichol legends. The Huichol oral tradition has passed down tales of a horned rabbit and of the deer getting horns from the rabbit. The rabbit and deer were paired, though not combined as a hybrid, as
day signs in the calendar of the
Mesoamerican period of the
Aztecs, as twins, brothers, even the sun and moon.
Douglas variant The New York Times attributes the American jackalope's origin to a 1932 hunting outing involving Douglas Herrick (1920–2003) of
Douglas, Wyoming. Herrick and his brother had studied
taxidermy by mail order as teenagers, and when the brothers returned from a hunting trip for jackrabbits, Herrick tossed a carcass into the taxidermy store, where it came to rest beside a pair of deer antlers. The accidental combination of animal forms sparked Herrick's idea for a jackalope. The first jackalope the brothers put together was sold for $10 to Roy Ball, who displayed it in Douglas' La Bonte Hotel. The mounted head was stolen in 1977. The jackalope became a popular local attraction in Douglas, where the Chamber of Commerce issues Jackalope Hunting Licenses to tourists. The tags are good for hunting during official jackalope season, which occurs for only one day: June 31 (a nonexistent date as June has 30 days), from midnight to 2 a.m. The hunter must have an IQ greater than 50 but not over 72. Thousands of "licenses" have been issued. Building on the Herrick's success, Frank English of
Rapid City, South Dakota has made and sold many thousands of jackalopes since retiring from the
Air Force in 1981. He is the only supplier of the altered animal heads to
Cabela's, a major outdoor-theme retail company. His standard jackalopes and "world-record" jackalopes sell for about $150. In
Man and Beast in American Comic Legend, folklorist
Richard Dorson recounts the Douglas variant but also an alternative that will "surely infuriate the residents of Douglas...". According to Dorson, in
Mythical Creatures of the North Country (1969), historian Walker D. Wyman acknowledged the existence of what he called the Alkali Area Jackalope of the western United States. However, he expressed doubt that it predated the Jack-pine Jackalope of
Minnesota and
Wisconsin, "a mythological throwback that defies even the most competent biologists of the region." Wyman claimed there were three known specimens of this primary jackalope—in
Augusta in west-central Wisconsin;
Cornucopia, along the south shore of
Lake Superior; and in a north shore museum and
lumber camp— all "presumably shot by careless hunters during the deer season." In a 1978 revision and expansion of his book, which includes material on the rubberado porcupine, the
snoligoster, the three-tailed bavalorus, the
squonk, and many other creatures, Wyman devotes four pages to the jackalope. In a turnabout from his earlier claims of a North Country origin for the antlered hare, he says, "The center of its vast range seems to be Wyoming." Evidence of wide dispersal of
Lepus antilocapra wyomingensis from its original range, he claims, are labels such as "Tioga, Pennsylvania," and "Hongkong" stamped on mounted jackalope heads in barrooms across the United States. ==Tall tales==