Helle (Fluffy Jackalopy)'s Page

The jackalope is a mythical animal of North American folklore (a so-called "fearsome critter") described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns or deer antlers and sometimes a pheasant's tail (and often hind legs). The word "jackalope" is a portmanteau of "jackrabbit" and "antelope".

The story of the jackalope was popularised in Wyoming in the 1930s after a local hunter used taxidermy skills to graft deer antlers onto a jackrabbit carcass, selling the creature to a local hotel. It is possible that the tales of jackalopes were inspired by sightings of rabbits infected with the Shope papilloma virus, which causes the growth of horn- and antler-like tumors in various places on the rabbit's head and body.^[1][2] The concept of an animal hybrid occurs in many cultures, such as the griffin and the chimera, and horned hares were described in medieval and early Renaissance texts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackalope