Because January and February are delightful months for rabbit hunters in these parts, perhaps after 118 years, Brookings County can regain its place as the home of the horned rabbit. 

In January 1902, the big news across the state was about the proliferation of hunters in this county who were encountering horned rabbits.

The first news report showed up that year in the Aurora Times issue of Jan. 18. An Aurora nimrod claimed he’d actually bagged a hare with horns.

Not to be outdone, a rabbit hunter in the White area claimed he also got one, the White Enterprise reported that same week.

With that news, the Brookings Press figured it needed to get aboard the horned rabbit train.

Brookings Editor Allen said he actually knew of several Brookings hunters who had seen horned rabbits while traipsing around in the county’s deep snow, but they had not yet shot one. 

He said he had long been aware that horned rabbits were common in this area.

“But for a genuine curiosity in the rabbit line, one with a long tail like a fox takes the cake,” he wrote.  “If you shoot a long-tailed rabbit, you will have something to talk about.”

I suspect Allen had inserted his tongue into his cheek and was playing along with the Aurora and White editors and the area hunters. He may have assumed those who claimed to have shot horned rabbits had probably stopped by their local watering hole for a few shots of another kind before heading out into the wilderness.

But with the otherwise serious and sensible newspaper editors in Aurora, White and perhaps Brookings expounding on the actual existence of horned rabbits, it fell to the editor of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader to insert some common sense and reason to the discussion.

The Argus editor agreed that the so-called horned rabbits “are not uncommon around these parts. Four years ago this winter a local hunter who was out gunning for cotton tails brought to the Argus Leader office two rabbits which were of the class called ‘horned,’” he wrote. 

“The aforesaid hunter was considerably worked up over the discovery and thought he had struck something new. Later developments showed that these ‘horned’ rabbits had been found in this section of the state for years.”

The Argus editor said that what appeared to be rabbit horns were not really horns, but some kind of growth of a hard substance that “occasionally shows up on rabbits, and not only on their heads, but sometimes on their necks and even on their backs.” 

That seemed to settle that.

The only horned rabbits I’ve seen in South Dakota are the stuffed ones at Wall Drug Store and elsewhere along the tourist routes in West River country.

Those wall hangings display the skill of taxidermists at implanting deer spikes or antelope horns onto bunny heads. 

I encourage local hunters in pursuit of rabbits this winter to take the time to check heads, necks and backs. And if you get a bunny with a long tail like a fox, let us know.