Jackalope

Overview

The jackalope is a mythical North American hare with antelope or deer antlers, originating as a 1930s taxidermy creation by the Herrick brothers in Douglas, Wyoming. It is the most famous American example of an old global folkloric tradition of horned hares.

Details

Origin:

Folklore range covers the American West, especially Wyoming, with secondary tall-tale presence across Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, and Colorado. The wider 'horned hare' tradition is global, with European (wolpertinger, lepus cornutus) and Middle Eastern (al-mi'raj) analogues.

Regions:

American West, Wyoming, Great Plains, Bavaria

First Reported:

1932

Full Account

The jackalope is a mythical creature of American folklore, depicted as a jackrabbit with the antlers of a pronghorn antelope or deer. The modern phenomenon traces to Douglas, Wyoming in the early 1930s, where brothers Douglas Herrick (1920–2003) and Ralph Herrick are credited with mounting a jackrabbit head to a set of deer antlers and selling the first specimen to Roy Ball of the La Bonte Hotel for ten dollars in 1932. The fabrication tapped a much older tradition: medieval and early-modern European naturalists illustrated the 'lepus cornutus' or horned hare in bestiaries and natural-history compendia, the Bavarian wolpertinger remains a related taxidermy tradition, and the Persian / Arabic al-mi'raj is a horned hare of medieval Islamic mythography. The Wyoming variant rapidly became roadside-attraction kitsch and a regional tall-tale staple, complete with claims of human-voice mimicry, lightning-fast running, attack behavior, and 'jackalope milk' with medicinal properties. A widely-cited biological cause for at least some original sightings is infection by the Shope papillomavirus (named for Richard E. Shope), which causes large keratinous, horn-shaped tumors to grow on the heads of cottontails and jackrabbits. Douglas, Wyoming has self-styled the 'Jackalope Capital of the World' since 1965, with a city statue, a 'jackalope hunting license' sold by the chamber of commerce, and repeated state-legislature attempts (2005, 2013, 2015) to designate the jackalope Wyoming's official mythological creature.

Also Known As

• Antelabbit (American West)
• Aunt Benny (American West)
• Lepus cornutus (Latin (pseudoscientific))
• Wolpertinger (German, Bavaria, Germany)
• Al-mi'raj (Arabic, Persian / Arabic mythology)

Etymology

Origin:

Portmanteau of 'jackrabbit' and 'antelope'; coined in the United States, popularized by the Herrick brothers' Douglas, Wyoming taxidermy work in the 1930s

Meaning:

Jackrabbit + (pronghorn) antelope

First Use:

1930s (Douglas, Wyoming, USA)

Timeline

• 1932 — Douglas and Ralph Herrick of Douglas, Wyoming sell their first taxidermy jackalope to Roy Ball at the La Bonte Hotel for $10 (Creation of the modern American jackalope)
• 1933 — Richard E. Shope, M.D., describes the cottontail rabbit papillomavirus that causes horn-like tumors on rabbits (Provides a plausible biological substrate for older horned-hare folklore)
• 1965 — Douglas, Wyoming officially declares itself the 'Jackalope Capital of the World' (Civic codification of the legend)
• 2003-01 — Death of Douglas Herrick, co-creator of the jackalope, age 82 (Obituary coverage in The New York Times and elsewhere reaffirmed the Herrick origin story)
• 2005 — First Wyoming state legislative attempt to designate the jackalope the official mythological creature of Wyoming (First of several legislative efforts (also 2013, 2015))

Sightings & Evidence

Cultural Significance

Universally acknowledged as folklore / hoax in modern usage; embraced as regional identity rather than as a literal cryptid.

Related Phenomena

• Wolpertinger — Bavarian chimeric taxidermy creature with hare body, antlers, fangs, and wings
• Al-mi'raj — Single-horned hare from medieval Arabic / Persian mythography
• Lepus cornutus — Pre-modern European 'horned hare' described in early natural-history texts
• Skvader — Swedish taxidermy chimera (hare with grouse wings) created 1918

Tags

Sources

• Jackalope — Wikipedia
• Infectious papillomatosis of rabbits — Journal of Experimental Medicine
• Douglas Herrick, 82, Dies; Father of Jackalope — The New York Times