by Cole Herrold
Rabbits are one of the most beloved pets
that people get. While children year-round want an actual bunny for Easter as
opposed to the nightmare that is the Easter Bunny for those not traumatically
scarred by watching the not-so kid-friendly Watership Down, it can be a
fun and loveable furry addition to the family. When people think of rabbits,
they, outside that Lovecraftian Easter Bunny, tend to imagine tiny, sometimes
overly fed, long-eared animals that have a hardcore urge to eat vegetables. In
this way, we often feel that because we keep them as pets and for the avid
outdoorsmen hunt them that there is nothing new regarding these animals,
especially in the world of Cryptozoology. However, in California, there was a
case of a rabbit whose proportions would have made it fit in with the other
colossal kaiju creeps in the cult film Night of the Lepus.
It was in March of 1969 when Stephen P. Alpert, a geologist working towards his Ph.D., was out in the Northern part of L.A. County near Vasquez Rocks State Park is an area known as Tick Canyon. He was deployed to this particular area as part of a UCLA Geology project which focused on mapping the various rock kinds in the surrounding area. It was during this particular day, as he scanned the horizon mapping certain points down, that he noticed something bizarre on the landscape. A large dark form that seemed to almost blend in with the rocky terrain. He got closer and got to about 7ft from the figure when it raised up, and he could see that what he had been looking at was a kind of bizarre animal. The creature stood about five and a half feet tall, had large ears and a long face, and a dark brown body with muscular forepaws. He estimated that the bulky yet slender animal was about 150-175 lbs. Stephen stared at the anomalous animal as he stared back and thought, "that looks like a kangaroo! What is a kangaroo doing out here?". As he scanned the body, however, he noticed that the creature was missing something that seemed to indicate that what he was looking at was not a marsupial, and that was the lack of a pouch. He watched as the animal proceeded to turn and bound away. As the animal turned, he got his official confirmation that this was nothing of the classical marsupial variety, for instead of the classic long tail seen in kangaroos, wallaroos, and wallabies, this animal had in its place a white cotton ball tail as seen in rabbits and hares. He watched the creature until it finally managed to hop out of sight.
Alpert, amazed at what he had seen but
still under pressure to complete his mapping, did not run off to tell of his
encounter until the next day at the college. Alpert received his Ph.D. in 1974
in both Paleontology and Geology, and Alpert's story eventually became a tale
that would be remembered only by the most senior members of the geology
department. However, encounters with what has been called the Tick Canyon Giant
Rabbit did not end. Other students and faculty who had worked in the area would
also come forward to tell of seeing a large cotton-tailed monstrosity jumping
and hopping in the area. Many of these eyewitnesses never even had heard of
Alpert's sighting leading to an eventual “hypothetical answer” to the creature by
a member of the UCLA Geology Department Alumni Magazine Dean Hall. He
writes in his article "The Tick Canyon Rabbit" that in 1991 upon
exiting a canyon near Davenport Road, he had the almost mirage-like chance of
encountering a red bikini-clad woman riding an elephant. The two exchanged
mundane conversations, something that under the circumstances seems to be the
last thing that would be discussed until the perturbed pachyderm began throwing
sand with its trunk over its back and also at Hall. Hall decided that this was
enough and politely left the area, deciding not to tell any of his colleagues
about his experience since it seemed pretty ludicrous. He decided to keep it
secret, that is until a few weeks later when he had reached an area close to
his encounter with the beauty on the elephant. While in this area, he had heard
a horrible din of sounds that rumbled through the air. Getting closer, he
realized that the noises were coming from a property just off in the distance,
and he could see cages and fenced-off areas where multitudes of animals were
running and confined. Upon getting closer to the farm, he was approached by the
owner, a man by the name of Brian, who allowed him to come in and examine his
menagerie muttering the words "as long as you don't get eaten." Once
Hall at a good look at every species Brian owned, the two began to talk about
his research and why he was in the area. While conversating and as a way of
getting his newfound acquaintance a good chuckle, he broached the topic of the
Tick Canyon Giant Rabbit as well as his own bizarre experience. The owner
listened intently to the story, and straight-faced exclaimed that Hall did, in
fact, encounter a woman on an elephant and that the students did, in fact, see
a Tick Canyon Giant Rabbit, perhaps even two. With great hesitance, the owner
explained how two of his wallaroos several years ago had escaped his compound
and managed to lead into the sightings of what had been dubbed the Tick Canyon
Giant Rabbit.
Years later, after the publication by Hall
when the book Weird California was being written, Stephen Alpert wrote
to the authors Greg Bishop, Joe Oesterle, and Mike Marinacci about the Tick
Canyon Giant Rabbit being the first widely distributed account of the creature
and in his recounting of his sighting proceeded in giving some insight into
Hall's conclusions of what he saw. First, he stated that the timing of a few or
even several years is off as when he had seen the creature, it was almost
twenty years before the wallaroos had supposedly escaped. Secondly, while there
were some morphological features similar to a wallaroo, such as body and feet
shape, yet the haunches were much more significant than what was seen in a
kangaroo or wallaroo, and the ears were easily two to three times taller, almost
being ridiculously Looney Tunes esque. Thirdly is obviously the tail which was
not the long tapering tail seen but the small cotton ball variety seen in
virtually all rabbits and hares—ultimately making it highly unlikely that what
he saw was a wallaroo but a bizarre leaping Leporidae.
With that end piece of information that
ends everything with the bizarre case of the Tick Canyon Giant Rabbit. This
creature is perhaps one of the more plausible cryptids out there in regard to
what it is, seeing as rabbits are a species we are aware of and have a great
deal of interaction with. An enormous variation of 3-5 ft might seem a stretch,
but evolutionarily speaking does make sense since that is how megafauna occur;
organisms of more diminutive stature eventually work their way to becoming
larger even modern-day humans are giants compared to our Australopithecine
ancestors. In fact, on the Spanish island of Minorca, fossil evidence of the
largest rabbit has been found. The species called Nuralagus Rex was
almost two feet tall, making it nearly six times the size of the common
European rabbit, making it a mammoth mammal when looking at rabbit species but
when comparing it to a human was still relatively small, especially if one were
to suggest this creature as a candidate for what could be seen in California.
While there's no modern living rabbit in
the wild of this size that we know of, there are domesticated breeds called
Flemish Giants who can reach lengths of about 4ft which is the size of the Tick
Canyon Giant Rabbit. Possibly a few of these specimens had escaped captivity
which is the only area where they exist and managed to carve a niche for
themselves out in the canyon areas. Yet if this were the case, one would think
there would have been some sort of search for the missing giants, which, as far
as I can tell, never occurred. So, while suggesting the possibility that this
is why there are reports of giant rabbits in Tick Canyon seems unlikely, it is
something that is possible.
A Flemish Giant Rabbit
Another possibility, even though it seems
to be ruled out based on Stephen Alpert's testimony, is that what he and more
than likely the other students saw was indeed a wallaroo. The other sightings
he stated that other students encountered could very well be a wallaroo since the
details on the other sightings are nonexistent. His sighting is the only one
that seems to indicate something else entirely, and even with some of his
comparisons and descriptions, it does seem possible that he might not have
gotten the best look or mis-saw some of the features of the creature leading to
the more rabbit-like appearance as opposed to the actual marsupial features
which are not far off from those of a Leporidae. If we are to take his account
as accurate, however, at least with his sighting, this cant be the case. There
is some wiggle room with the wallaroo hypothesis with the other students and
faculty, but with him, it would clearly be something more like a rabbit or
hare.
Species/Potential Species: Mammal/ Leporidae/Marsupial
Location: Tick Canyon, California
Sighted: March 1969 until sometime in the 1990s
Works Cited:
Weird California by Greg Bishop, Joe Oesterle, and Mike Marinacci
Hall, Dean "Tick Canyon Giant Rabbit." UCLA Geology Department Alumni Magazine. Approx. 1997.
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