‘Frankenstein’ rabbits with tentacles seen in the US – should humans be worried?

‘Frankenstein’ rabbits with black tendrils sprouting from their faces have been spotted in the US.

Looking like they’re straight out of HBO’s fungus horror show, The Last of Us, these mutated bunnies have been spotted in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Rabbits have long called the town home, often seen hopping from garden to garden, munching on lawns.

But local resident Susan Mansfield said she recently saw one with ‘black quills or black toothpicks sticking out all around’.

She told local TV station KOSA: ‘I thought he would die off during the winter, but he didn’t, he came back a second year, and it grew.’

What… is going on?

Sightings of the bunnies with sluglike growths date back to at least last year, when a Reddit user shared photographs of a rabbit in her garden covered in horns.

‘Is this a growth or what’s going on? I feel bad for it, but he seems fine,’ the user said.

The bunnies are infected with a disease called cottontail rabbit papilloma.

Behind the infection is the wily Shope papilloma virus, which wriggles inside a rabbit’s skin cells and rewires them so they replicate uncontrollably.

Over time, these cells pile up and form warty, black lesions called rabbit papillomas that sprout from the rabbit’s neck, shoulders, eyes and eyelids.

They can vary in size, from as small as a pea to a few centimetres.

These unsightly tumours aren’t just to freak us out – they’re there so the virus has plenty of space to keep on spreading.

Though, the tumours themselves aren’t infectious. The virus is transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks, with cases peaking in summer when the biting insects are most active.

Will the rabbits be okay?

Rabbits typically overcome the disease on their own, with research suggesting that in about 35% of affected rabbits, papillomas disappear within six months.

There is no known cure, and while most infected cottontails survive, the growths can limit a rabbit’s ability to eat, causing it to starve to death.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife says in an advisory: ‘For this reason, CPW does not recommend euthanising rabbits with papillomas unless they are interfering with the rabbit’s ability to eat and drink.’

Sometimes, however, the warts progress into squamous cell carcinoma, a serious form of skin cancer.

Is there any risk to humans? What about other animals?

Colorado wildlife officials have warned people not to touch or feed these strange-looking rabbits.

But people shouldn’t fear them, Kara Van Hoose, a spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told Metro.

‘This current strain of the Shope papilloma virus cannot be transmitted to humans,’ she stressed. ‘But it’s impossible to say if the virus mutates in the future, that it couldn’t.’

Cottontail rabbit papillomavirus is part of a family of viruses called papillomaviruses.

Many mammals have species-specific papillomaviruses. In deer, for example, it can cause them to grow fleshy, bubble-shaped tumours.

Humans have our own – HPV, otherwise called human papillomavirus. There are many types of HPV, a common sexually transmitted disease, which tend to cause genital warts.

‘It, thankfully, does not cause us to grow tentacles or horns on our faces,’ said Van Hoose.

‘We couldn’t say for sure if that could change in the future, as viruses can evolve and mutate over time.’

There is some risk of the virus transmitting to domesticated rabbits, so pet owners have been warned to keep their furry friends indoors, said Van Hoose.

If they do become sickened with cottontail rabbit papillomavirus, they should be taken to a veterinarian, according to a CPW tipsheet.

Is an outbreak possible?

Probably not, Van Hoose stressed, who called reports about rising cases or outbreak fears ‘overblown’.

‘This is a virus which appears every summer and can affect rabbits all over the US. The public in general should not be concerned,’ she said.

Rabbits with antlers, colloquially called jackalopes, were described in journals between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Historians and scientists believe that sightings of these mythical creatures may have simply been rabbits suffering from papilloma.

‘I think they look pretty metal!’ Van Hoose added. ‘It’s interesting what nature can do.’

This article was first published on August 13, 2025.

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