Cryptid rabbits

As it's the season of Easter ,let's mention strange rabbits. One is called the Jackalope. It's a type of hare or jackrabbit with antlers. The horns are described in folklore as looking similar to antelope's horns. This is why it got it's name, for it's a combination of "jackrabbit" and "antelope". While this is a legendary creature popular today in North America, it's said that this created stories because of many 19th and 20th century taxidermists who made unusual looking animals for display. They put antlers on mounted trophies of hares. Some have found in parts of California are wild rabbits and hares with "horns" growing from their heads but this is due to an infection called Shope papilloma virus. People would've thought they were seeing jackalopes when they saw these infected rabbits. There are stories about jackalopes further back in time. In the 16th and 17th centuries there were books and illustrations mentioning jackalopes, such as in The History Book of Natural Quardrangles by John Johnston.

In German folklore is the Wolpertinger, .a legendary rabbit with horns as well as wings. They can be found in the forests of Bavaria, haunting the region and playing tricks. It's believed that the creature might be immortal and cursed to roam the landscape. This was based on a superstition that a wild female hare was raped by a feral roebuck, and she soon gave birth to strange offspring that looked like rabbits with antlers (it must be pointed out for scientific reasons that rabbits and hares are a different species although belonging to the same family of Leporidae). Deer cannot breed with hares or rabbits so the hybrid animal story is unbelievable today. As the saliva of a wolpertinger is magical enough that if it touches some person's arm, thick hair will grow on it. It's a shy entity but will attack only if threatened, by spraying stinking fluid on their attacker that will smell for years. Also many taxidermists made creatures looking like the wolpertinger in the 19th and 20th centuries, today found in public places in Bavaria. 

Similar to that is a Rasselbock, a creature that is a counterpart of jackalope and wolpertinger. It's said to have the body of a rabbit and antlers of a deer, and also sharp fangs with long canines. This shy mythical animal is found in the Harz Mountains and in the Thurungian Forest region. It's believed that its footprints have been left in the snow. 

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More stuff on this at: Sophienburg Nuseum and Archives Wolpertingers and other mythical rabbits.

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