BajaNomad - Strange and unusual fauna.....

Strange and unusual fauna.....

bajabuddha - 9-28-2013 at 02:26 AM

Recently, I had an old and dear friend mention a particular taxiderm i had mounted in my hair salon some 20 years ago... she was still facinated with its' appearance, but slightly confused with the origin (not unlike the recent thread of '200myo Baja). So i thought i'd share my reply and clarification for responses here. Have fun.

"I need to correct you; it was NOT a 'rabbit with horns', it was a Great Western Jackalope, not to be confused with an American Antelabbit. The difference is, the Jackalope is a male jack rabbit that mates with a female antelope, but somebody has to put him up to it. The Antelabbit is the breeding of a female jack rabbit and a male antelope, but he's gotta stoop pretty low for a thing like that. Plus, because of their prolific behavior, their antlers (now here's the catch; the moose, elk and deer families have antlers, the antelope and sheep have HORNS... antlers shed, horns are lifetime, so don't believe a gosh darnned word i say) .... ahem..... because of their prolific behavior their antlers shed and re-grow 4 times a year, so most very LARGE jackrabbits you see in the desert MAY BE either one of the two, but in molting season; hence, very large but no antlers. At least for the present unless you look really REALLY CLOSE.
Now, they are nocturnal, all rabbit-family members are, and with their hyper rabbit-genes and the curiosity of the antelope family, they are naturally drawn to campfires, and hide close by in the sage brush or chapparel to watch and learn... so when an unfortunate human who may be up later than they should stumbles and falls into that brush, they're slightly gored in the leg or buttocks by the startled creature, hence after many a late campfire i personally have awoke with many a puncture wound to my lower region without any knowledge of whence it came. Just wanted to get that part straightened out.

Nobody believed me when i just had a picture on the wall of one so i had one mounted and placed on the wall for proof. "

Over the ensuing 10+ years or so, twice i have had clients re-enter my shop and severely verbally chastise me (mitt da fingah) that they went home and told their hubby this story and he'd been laughing hysterically for 3 days and making bunny ears with his hands and buck-teeth faces... now i ask you, is this fair to the pursuit of new and varied species on this hemisphere, right down to Bigfoot himself?

Y'all be the judge.

chuckie - 9-28-2013 at 04:31 AM

Buddha, you may well be the strangest fauna extant...just sayin....

Pescador - 9-28-2013 at 06:53 AM

The night we celebrated St. Patricks day at your trailer with a bit of the Irish Whisky, I ran over two of them darn things on the way home.

durrelllrobert - 9-28-2013 at 08:35 AM

Wyoming has an abundance of Prong Horns and jack Rabbits and hence the Jackalopes are everywhere. However the Pronghorns have apparently become bored with the nasty habits of the Jack Rabbits around the Lake Seminole area and have become aquatic. that's why there is now an abundance of Walleyed Prong Horns in that area.

[Edited on 9-28-2013 by durrelllrobert]

bajabuddha - 9-28-2013 at 09:59 AM

Walleyed pronghorns ! :lol:

I once saw a postcard from Wyldoming of a Jackalope so big it was saddled.

vandenberg - 9-28-2013 at 10:54 AM

Halfway between Sacramento and Tahoe there was a roadside bar on highway 50 that had several jackelope heads on display behind the bar. The old man who owned the place, used to entertain the customers with their stories.
He claimed that because of the steepness of the terrain, over times the jackelopes had shorter legs on one side, so they could traverse the sidehills with greater ease. The drawback was, that they had to travel in one direction, thus actually keep going around the mountain. Guy was funny and I had many a laugh at his stories. Hard to believe, but I actually observed people who took his tales as gospel. :biggrin:

bajabuddha - 9-28-2013 at 01:25 PM

Vandenburg,
In Olden Days and the settling of Utah, they also had 'side-hill goats' that, due to the precipitous nature of the Wasatch Mountains, the same cause and effect took place. They would graze in one direction around and around a mountain until one side of their legs would be shorter than the other side.

They quickly became extinct due to the ease of hunting them (i hear the meat was delicious). All you had to do was jump out from behind a rock in front of them, and when they turned to run, ploppity-ploppity-plop they'd roll down and break their poor llittle necks without even a shot fired.

As far as the jackalope i had on my salon wall (this is a true story) TWICE i had a customer from a few previous days back come back in and cuss me out, making aspersions to my natal legitimacy, because i'd explain many unique features and such about the creature, assuring them they were real. Their husbands got such a charge out of their relating what i told them that..... to bring my mother into it well, we were still friends. I had more fun with that damned thing than you could imagine.

durrelllrobert - 9-28-2013 at 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by vandenberg
Halfway between Sacramento and Tahoe there was a roadside bar on highway 50 that had several jackelope heads on display behind the bar. The old man who owned the place, used to entertain the customers with their stories.
He claimed that because of the steepness of the terrain, over times the jackelopes had shorter legs on one side, so they could traverse the sidehills with greater ease. The drawback was, that they had to travel in one direction, thus actually keep going around the mountain. Guy was funny and I had many a laugh at his stories. Hard to believe, but I actually observed people who took his tales as gospel. :biggrin:

That's why the avocado growers in north SD county hire Guatemalans instead of Mexicans to pick the fruit. The Guatemalans have the short leg on the correct side.

durrelllrobert - 9-28-2013 at 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajabuddha
Walleyed pronghorns ! :lol:

I once saw a postcard from Wyldoming of a Jackalope so big it was saddled.

This one's in South Carolina:

..and here's a picture of a Walled Pronghorn that's not yet fully evolved:

[Edited on 9-28-2013 by durrelllrobert]

South Dakota Jackalope

tripledigitken - 9-28-2013 at 06:00 PM

(Taken a few years ago at Wall Drug.)

The Jackalope milk is very tasty in coffee.