Andreas Kay is an independent scientist and photographer, who documents the diversity of life in Ecuador.
Deep in the rainforests of the country, you will find a creature called the “bunny harvestman,” that is both scary and peculiarly cute. The odd creature was caught on film in July 2017 by Kay and since his post, many people can’t quite believe he’s real.
The eight skinny yellow legs holding up what looks like a big black dog’s head and the rabbit-like ears, all add up to the creature’s weird appearance. Although it looks like a spider, the little creature “technically belongs to the same order of arachnid as daddy longlegs (who are also harvestmen), according to The Dodo.
It’s almost 60 years since the bunny harvestman was discovered by Carl Friedrich Roewer, and scientists are still not sure how he got his unusual look.
One presumption is that the animal’s “ears” and huge head are meant to make it look more frightening to predators, according to Kay. “Maybe the eye spots and ear-like protuberances are meant to fool predators into thinking the creature is larger than it really is,” Kay wrote in a blog post.
Bunny harvestmen are not poisonous and like their doglike head suggests, they pose no threat to human beings.
