The Great Jackalope Immigration
When the Impressive Horned Creature Invaded South Dakota.
OWANKA, SD — It was known as the Grand Horned Bunny Experiment, and nobody but a couple of animal biologists from the University of Wyoming expected it to work.
But the casual observer of the time couldn’t have counted on the combination of Wyoming higher education rigor and South Dakota prairie dust grit to propel the two researchers onward toward their destinies with hybrid critter colonization.
The experiment faltered at first, and the two scientists began to worry if their subjects might perish. This was the Great Plains of South Dakota after all, and Mother Nature could be extremely brutal — especially in the spring of 1934 in east-central Pennington County. But Lars Noostegard and Joe Troutburn were determined to make sure what one might call the seeding of Lepus antilocapra wyomingensis (Wyoming Jackalope) a success.
But where did the Jackalope come from in the first place? Its history in this world is long and mysterious. Nonetheless, it ironically reflects the grit and determination of our two intrepid biologists who were responsible for resettling them in the Rushmore State.
