Colorado Rabbits Growing Tentacle-Like Horns: The Truth

Unlike the video of rabbits jumping on a trampoline, these pictures aren’t AI.

In fact, the recently viral photos of rabbits in Fort Collins, Colorado, sporting strange, almost tentacle-like horns are real. But before you go down a rabbit hole or jump to conclusions about some strange and terrifying new virus, the phenomenon actually has a simple answer.

The rabbits are suffering from cottontail rabbit papillomavirus, which is “a viral disease that causes malignant tumors to grow in rabbits, often on its head,” per PetMD. The virus is most often seen in wild rabbits, though can occur in domestic rabbits, and outbreaks usually occur in the fall and summer.

The virus is most often transmitted by biting arthropod insects such as mosquitoes or ticks.

In the case of the unlucky rabbits in Colorado, the virus has resulted in large, black and twisted growths protruding from the heads and necks of the animals.

But, despite the alarming appearance, there’s no need to put your pet—rabbit or otherwise—back in its hat.