An earless bunny has become the new face of the nuclear concerns in Japan.
The bunny was born near the severely damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in - and it has locals wondering if this is just the beginning of the side effects from the nuclear disaster, AOL News reported.
A video of the bunny was posted to YouTube - and it quickly exploded in the blogosphere as the "nuclear rabbit."
Scientists have debated about the effect that radiation has on animals since the leak began following a massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March.
"I have to wonder whether there are any other bunnies in the group that have anomalies like that. I didn't see any. And that would make me very hesitant to cry "Radiation!" just because one baby bunny is missing his external ear pinnae," Dana Krempels, who heads the Miami chapter of the House Rabbit Society, told the Daily News in an email.
Salon.com pointed out that another earless bunny was born in the U.K. last year.
After the blast that sparked the initial leaks at the plant, Japanese officials warned people living near the Fukushima plant to stay indoors, turn off their air conditioning and not drink tap water.
High doses of radiation can cause cancer and other major health problems.
But it might have not taken the bunny's ears.
"Whether it's due to radiation or some other factor is not possible to say, since these types of
malformations do occasionally occur in the absence of known mutagens," Krempels added.
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