Japan's Earless Rabbit Sparks Worries About Radiation, Mutation

It's no Godzilla, but an earless rabbit allegedly born near Japan's severely-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has become the latest poster child for the side-effects of radiation exposure.

The bunny -- purportedly captured on video just outside the crippled plant exclusion area and posted on YouTube on May 21 -- has become big news in Japan and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere, stoking fears that contamination from the damaged facility could cause genetic mutations.

But both rabbit experts and radiation researchers told AOL Weird News the bunny's bizarre looks could have a less sensational explanation.

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Though the longterm environmental effects remain unclear, there's no denying that the radiation emitting from Fukushima Dai-ichi, about 140 miles northeast of Tokyo, poses a major health risk.

However it's hard to say whether this earless bunny's strange appearance can be blamed on radiation, according to F. Ward Whicker, professor emeritus at Colorado State University's Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences.

"Yes, radiation can cause mutations that can be occasionally expressed as obvious birth defects, such as shown in the video," Whicker wrote in an e-mail. "However, to say this is the result of contamination from the Fukushima accident is a stretch, because natural radiation, as well as many other chemical substances in the environment and other factors, can also be mutagenic."

In most cases, the cause of congenital birth defects in humans and other animals cannot be determined, he said.

"So far as science has shown, there have never been mutations produced by ionizing radiations that do not occur spontaneously as well."

News reports from around the world have cast the bunny as a "nuclear rabbit" or a "mutant rabbit," citing the fact the animal and was born and raised on "possibly contaminated" outdoor grass in the Fukushima prefecture's Namie City.

But nuclear historian Richard Rhodes says a link between the earless rabbit and radiation "is highly unlikely."

The evidence, Rhodes says, can be found in research conducted in the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"In the years after World War II, there was a major American commission that looked into the health ramifications of the atomic bombings, and it found no genetic changes in the populations of Hiroshima or Nagasaki," said Rhodes, who has written extensively on the bombings. "There were no birth defects attributed to the bombing, and no genetic consequences."

In fact, the earless rabbit's strange appearance may not be caused by genetic factors at all.

Far removed from radiation concerns in Japan, Mary Cotter, a licensed veterinary technician and New York City chapter manager for the House Rabbit Society, has had two run-ins with earless rabbits.

"I've never encountered a rabbit that is born with no ears, but mother rabbits are assiduous groomers," Cotter said. "A mother can enthusiastically over-groom and chew off a baby's ears."

Maternal over-grooming can leave young rabbits looking like they were born without ears, though close investigation could reveal jagged edges of flesh surrounding their auditory canals.

Cotter believes that was the case for two earless rabbits -- fittingly dubbed "Stubs" and "Nubbins" -- that she has taken into her care.

With only one video as evidence, it's impossible to know why the bunny has no ears, said Dana Krempels, a rabbit expert and University of Miami biology professor.

"It is pretty much impossible to say whether this anomaly is due to radiation. But it's very unlikely, in my opinion, that a failure to develop ears could be due to a single mutation," said Krempels, who heads the Miami chapter of the House Rabbit Society.

Mutations and epigenetic changes are hard to track, varying greatly between subjects.

"But if more baby bunnies with physical anomalies show up in this area, it's certainly a red flag," she said.

Huffington Post has attempted to contact the YouTube poster who submitted the video, but has not gotten a response.

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Comments

[Heather Ferreira]

11:48 AM on 06/12/2011

It is also a bunny born after Lady Gaga's music first hit the air. Natural selection at work, I say.

[let1gre]

02:26 AM on 06/11/2011

Every article about the Fukushima plant and its possible effects should have this picture posted mandatorily.
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2011/03/radiation.png

[mlaiuppa]

03:40 PM on 06/10/2011

That isn't a wild bunny. It a domestic bunny. White with pink eyes. Like a lab bunny.

[Wiz Moo]

03:00 PM on 06/10/2011

That is indeed some pretty scary stuff dude. Wow.
online-privacy.no.tc

[Cycad]

09:43 AM on 06/10/2011

we're all screwed. maybe it's about time i just sit back and ride the wave.

[darkprincearies]

08:49 AM on 06/10/2011

hey i want that bunny looks like the fury version of creature in splice

[mario59]

06:08 AM on 06/10/2011

This story leaves out so much and reflects the poor reporting so prevalent in stories today. A real reporter would want to know: does the animal respond to sound? Does the animal still have ear canals even though it has no pinnas (outer ears)? It's hard to tell from the video as you would have to pull back the fur.

A lack of pinnas should only be the beginning of a deeper exploration into finding out the real question: can this animal hear and if not, why not?

[let1gre]

02:29 AM on 06/11/2011

Gotta love sensationalist news, right? This rabbit probably has ZERO to do with the raised radiation levels at Fukushima, and is just a random happenstance that happened to occur near a place where people were freaking out already.
$#!t happens, folks!
http://holy-cuteness.blogspot.com/2008/12/vincent-earless-rabbit.html

[Tristan Sellers]

03:04 AM on 06/10/2011

Birth of the soon down the line Deathclaw.

[Kaity Seabrook]

04:29 AM on 06/12/2011

dumbest thing ever.

[Igotit]

11:52 PM on 06/09/2011

I wonder if it affects its hearing?

[AbstractImp]

09:25 PM on 06/09/2011

This could prove to be a blind spot for them.

[Kaity Seabrook]

04:30 AM on 06/12/2011

rabbits see all around their head and well above it for ample time to get away from an enemy. as long as he can see, he'll be fine.

[TheSarge]

09:14 PM on 06/09/2011

Mmm! Neon green hasenpfeffer

[TheHandyman]

08:51 PM on 06/09/2011

Rabbits use their ears to regulate their body temperature. Any mutation that would deprive a rabbit without a means to regulate its body temperature would be a non viable trait dooming it and all of it's offspring if it was a dominant gene unless the rabbit lived somewhere the temperatures varied very little and was in the safe liveable range of the rabbit.

[ABACADABRA RABBIT]

09:25 PM on 06/09/2011

my backyard!

[Meg CorrelloLux]

07:26 PM on 06/09/2011

Well Um noone was worried in the first place with the radiation???? Hellooooo????

[Pete Duffy]

07:04 PM on 06/09/2011

Silly people, where the plant is and where the radiation is, if you’re in CA then I would worry about the bunny. If you’re in Japan, the prevailing winds and landscape will protect you outside the zone established. Sooooo, anyone want some fish?

[sue1mar3]

06:29 PM on 06/09/2011

An earless bunny doesn't seem that unusual.

[TheHandyman]

08:56 PM on 06/09/2011

Then you don't know anything about rabbits. The ears of a rabbit are a necessity to regulate their body temperature. Notice that rabbits living in the desert have very large ears while rabbits native to colder climes have shorter ears? Well, that's why. A rabbit without ears is like a human without sweat glands or a dog with out a tongue! Did you take high school biology, sleep through it, or was it cut because it wasn't  in the creationist handbook or some fake economic crisis reason?

[sue1mar3]

02:18 AM on 06/10/2011

Seriously, I was only pointing out that unusual things happen in nature such as a rabbits born without ears, albinos, two-headed animals, etc. and they have nothing to do with nuclear mutations. You read far too much into it because you felt the need to show off your supreme intellect over my pitiful small brain. You are right, I must have missed that all-important chapter in my human biology book that had to do with rabbits' ears.