I recently visited the beautiful state of New Mexico and was introduced to the legend of the wily jackalope. What is the origin of this legend, and should I stage an expedition to be the first to brave the jackalope’s habitat and bring one back alive?
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Ah, the fabulous jackalope, with the body of a jackrabbit and the horns of an antelope. Beloved of smart-aleck taxidermists and collectors of comical postcards. The object of eager expeditions by slicks from back east (not you, Fred, you’re from Georgia). I knew just who to ask about this–Jill, longtime consultant to the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board. Jill got her BS from the University of New Mexico but no doubt had quite a bit of her own to start with, having convinced Little Ed she was Amish twice. I felt certain that as a westerner with an affinity for tall tales she would know about the jackalope.
“A favorite slide I have from a trip to Thailand shows eight elderly men holding glasses of whiskey, crowded around my table in an open-fronted restaurant, leaning over my shoulder animatedly pointing and arguing about some pictures I’m showing them. One is a postcard of a trout the size of a house trailer, being hauled behind a pickup truck. The other is a picture of a jackalope. Shame on me for introducing such hogwash to our Eastern brothers, but if it’s a good enough joke to play on American easterners, it’s good enough to play in southeast Asia. I like to think of myself as an ambassador of the American west wherever I go.”
