Not on my apocalypse bingo card

[Drunk Monk]

Virus in Colorado Creating 'Frankenstein' Rabbits with Eerie Tentacle-Like Growths on Their Faces
Cases of cottontail rabbit papillomavirus are causing alarming changes in Colorado's rabbits
By 
Kimberlee Speakman
 
Published on August 13, 2025 03:40PM EDT



A rabbit with a cottontail papilloma virus infection.Credit : 
Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty 
NEED TO KNOW

• Rabbits with black, tentacle-like growths sprouting from their faces have been spotted in Colorado
  
• Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) said the black growths on the rabbits are from a viral infection caused by the cottontail rabbit papillomavirus
  
• Experts note that the growths often don't harm the rabbits, unless the nodules inhibit eating and drinking
  

Peculiar-looking rabbits with black, tentacle-like growths sprouting from their faces have been spotted in Colorado.
Several residents in Fort Collins, Colo., have spotted the rabbits while out walking in their neighborhoods and raised concern over the creatures' strange appearance, according to KUSA-TV.
"It looks like it was black quills or black toothpicks sticking out all around his or her mouth," Fort Collins resident Susan Mansfield told the outlet about one rabbit. "I thought he would die off during the winter, but he didn't. He came back a second year, and it grew." 
Another person described the unusual additions to the outlet as "scabbish-looking" growths over the rabbit's face.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Kara Van Hoose told the Coloradoan that she started receiving reports about wild rabbits with black nodules on their face.

A photo of a rabbit with the papilloma virus.
Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty 

Some people have called the affected bunnies "Frankenstein" rabbits due to their eerie-looking growths. Others have questioned if the rabbits with the growths could be jackalopes, a cryptid from American lore which is said to have the body of a jackrabbit and the horns of an antelope, per The Smithsonian.
According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife's (CPW) website, the black growths on the rabbits' heads are due to a grimmer, more reality-based reason — a viral infection called the cottontail rabbit papillomavirus.
The virus causes "black nodules "to grow around an infected rabbit's head. The growths can "become elongated" and take on "a horn‐like appearance."
The CPW noted that this virus is "specific to rabbits" and "does not cause disease in other species." Still, rabbits suspected to be infected should be given space to prevent the spread of the virus to other wild rabbits and pet bunnies.
Thankfully, cottontail rabbit papillomavirus causes "no significant effects" to a rabbit's health, unless the growth inhibits drinking and eating, CPW shared.
"Most infected cottontails can survive the viral infection, after which the growths will go away," CPW added on its website. 
However, the agency noted that the virus can be "more severe" in pet rabbits, who should be taken to a veterinarian for treatment if they contract the virus.

A cottontail rabbit, munching green grass.Photo © Russ Chastain

CPW spokesperson Van Hoose told The Coloradoan that summer is commonly the time to see rabbits with growths caused by the cottontail rabbit papillomavirus.
"Typically, rabbits become infected in the warmer months of summer when transmitted by being bitten by insects like fleas and ticks, then clears from the system in colder months, and the rabbits are typically fine," Van Hoose told the outlet.
She noted that while humans are not at risk of developing a cottontail rabbit papillomavirus infection, CPW recommends staying away from infected rabbits — just like any other wild animal.

Not as apocalyptic as radioactive wasps but strangely disturbing.