Bait bunny

Rabbits with horns spotted in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA are not a new species. Local wildlife officials assured that the horny bunnies are harmless.

Kara Van Hoose, a spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told the Associated Press (AP) that fleas and ticks active in the summer spread the Shope papillomavirus among the carrot-eating animals, causing wart-like growths that protrude from the bunnies’ faces like horns.

Van Hoose said the growths don’t harm the rabbits, unless they grow on their eyes or mouths, with their immune system able to kill the virus and make the horns disappear, according to AP.

Meanwhile, normal-looking rabbits in Florida’s marshes are being used as bait for reptiles.

The strategy by the South Florida Water Management District is intended to flush out Burmese pythons from their hideouts in the Everglades and save smaller species from being eaten by the invasive reptiles.

Everglades National Park officials said the snakes have feasted on 95 percent of the small mammals as well as thousands of birds, so the pythons have to be removed, ABC News reports.

As the snakes are hard to find, Mike Kirkland, lead invasive animal biologist for the water district, said they deployed the 120 robot rabbits developed by University of Florida researchers, according to ABC News.

“They are solar-powered and can be switched on and off remotely. They are placed in small pens monitored by a video camera that sends out a signal when a python is nearby,” Kirkland told ABC News. “Then I deploy one of our many contractors to go out and remove the python.”

The total cost per robot rabbit is about $4,000, financed by the water district, he added.