Sick Snowshoe Hare

I found this Hare at Tanana Lakes this morning. It's not a very good photo, but you can see there are black wart-like protrusions all over the head. Is this just an unusually bad papilloma virum infection? I've never seen that in Alaska hares... The hare was distressed, and hasn't completed moult.

Any ideas?

I would agree with Fred based on this photo. It looks like the hare is suffering from a severe tick infestation.

Definitely ticks.


Kent in SD

Except that ticks are unknown in Interior Alaska. We've got a lot of insect pests besides mosquitoes, including gruesome nasties like bot flies, but not ticks.

Sure looks like ticks, but near Fairbanks?

Jim,
Maybe they are being introduced to your area due climate changes, other infected animals passing thru, etc.? I would keep an eye for ticks on other animals and yourself.

Ah man..... If ticks are moving in, I'm moving out. Barrow maybe? Baffin?

I forwarded the photo to an Alaska Fish & Game veterinarian. If I hear back, I'll post the diagnosis. But I really don't like the thought of ticks in Alaska.

I also sent a link to a veterinarian friend. If those lumps cant be positively identified from the photo, it may be that the only way you could know for sure is to capture the animal.

But I really don't like the thought of ticks in Alaska.

Yeah. What's next, rattlesnakes?

Can you imagine the Alaska brush and grass with either?

They are apparently ticks. Despite the frequent claim that Alaska doesn't have ticks, it turns out that Snowshoe Hares do, and they are a part of the cycle of tularemia that afflicts hares in Alaska. The somewhat gruesome details are at the Alaska Department of Fish & Game website. Elsewhere on the State's website, you can find the assertion that there are no ticks in Alaska...

Thanks to former ADF&G biologist and nature photographer (but not yet NPN member) Ken Whitten for answering my question.

Gak.

At least we don't have bubonic plague to go with it. We had it come through our place in the Southwest last summer, and right now you'd have to look long and hard to find ANY small mammals.

Tularemia is bad enough. I don't need The Plague in Alaska.

That is one nasty case of ticks:/

Bot Flies in Alaska? I wouldn't be able to cope!