00:00Whether you live in the country or in town, we've all seen cute little bunnies roaming around.
00:05But in one Sioux Falls neighborhood, cute, it's not the word that comes to mind.
00:11It looks like something out of a movie.
00:13This poor cottontail's face is deformed by growths, mostly on its head and face.
00:19We found him roaming in the neighborhood near 12th and Bonson.
00:22Dennis Shore walks his dog in the neighborhood and saw the cottontail in front of a shed this morning.
00:27I've never seen nothing like that before.
00:30I walk my dogs every day and I see lots of rabbits, but today it was very unusual.
00:38Turns out the growths are caused by a form of the papilloma virus found in cottontail rabbits.
00:43Game Fish and Parks biologist Josh Delger says the condition in rabbits is more common than we might think,
00:49but it rarely progresses to this stage.
00:52It's not something that you see spread real easily, and the most common way that it's spread is through, say, like ticks and mosquitoes.
00:59So this is Bear, and even at 12 years old, she's been known to catch a bunny or two in the backyard trespassing.
01:05The good news is, even if she caught one of the bunnies, she wouldn't get the virus.
01:10It's not a disease we'd have to worry about, getting spread from, say, a rabbit to a dog or a cat,
01:15but it could get spread, you know, from a wild rabbit to a domestic rabbit.
01:20Delger says we see a case this bad every five to six years.
01:23The average lifespan of a cottontail is about three years.
01:27This rabbit will likely die of natural causes unless the growth interferes with its feeding or makes it more vulnerable to predators.
01:34Now, dogs and cats have their own versions of the papilloma virus.
01:39According to a website, PetMD, in dogs, it can cause mouth sores, usually in puppies.
01:44In cats, the virus can present itself as mouth sores or warts, usually in older cats.
01:50Wow, I've never seen anything like that.
01:53Never seen anything like that either.
01:54It's nuts.
01:55Jeez, I hope that bunny doesn't die for that.
01:57I know, you feel bad for it.
01:58Yeah, well, it doesn't know.
01:59You feel bad for it.
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