If you saw one of these rabbits in your backyard, you’d probably do a double take.
Photos shared across Wisconsin, Minnesota and New York show rabbits with black, tentacle-like growths protruding from their heads. Some appear to have horns. Others look like they walked straight out of a science fiction movie.
The disturbing sightings are raising eyebrows across social media and wildlife circles alike.
One New York resident couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Made eye contact with this rabbit and immediately regretted it,” Ze Peitica Gado wrote on Facebook after spotting one on May 30.
“All jokes aside, I reported it to the proper wildlife authorities, but this thing was gnarly.”
The bizarre-looking animals may seem like a new phenomenon, but they aren’t.
Charisma Media reported on a similar outbreak in August 2025, when numerous sightings emerged around Fort Collins, Colorado. At the time, photos of rabbits sporting horn-like growths spread rapidly online and fueled comparisons to the legendary jackalope.
Now the creatures are back.
This time, sightings are occurring hundreds of miles away across multiple states, leading many to wonder why these grotesque animals seem to be appearing in more places.
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The Cause Behind the Nightmare Fuel
According to a Daily Mail report, the rabbits are infected with cottontail papilloma virus, also known as Shope papilloma virus.
The virus causes wart-like tumors that often develop around a rabbit’s head, ears and face. As the disease progresses, the growths can harden into twisted masses that resemble horns, antlers or black tentacles.
One Wisconsin resident shared a photo showing tentacle-like growths sprouting from the back of a rabbit’s head.
Another recalled receiving a frantic phone call from her daughter.
“Mom! I saw one of those tentacle-faced bunnies today.”
Scientists say the virus spreads primarily through mosquitoes and ticks. The condition is not believed to infect humans, dogs or cats.
The first signs are typically red, raised spots on the skin that eventually develop into larger tumors.
Some rabbits become so severely disfigured that they can no longer see, hear or eat properly.
The result is often a slow and tragic death.
Wildlife officials continue advising the public to leave infected animals alone and avoid handling them.
Creation Is Groaning
The images are shocking because they reveal something deeper than a strange wildlife disease.
Romans 8:22 says, “We know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.”
That reality is impossible to miss when looking at a rabbit struggling beneath massive tumors growing from its head.
The return of these infected rabbits follows a growing number of unusual stories involving the natural world. Massive insect invasions, wildlife diseases, marine die-offs and other disruptions continue making headlines around the globe.
This is what a fallen creation looks like.
Sin affected everything.
The animal kingdom bears the scars. The earth bears the scars. Humanity bears the scars.
The rabbits appearing across multiple states are another reminder that the world is not operating as God originally intended.
Yet Scripture points to a coming restoration.
Jesus Christ will make all things new. The curse that entered creation through sin will not have the final word.
Until that day, creation continues to testify to a truth the Bible declared long ago: something is wrong with this world, and all creation is waiting for redemption.
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
