In a centuries-long case of mistaken identity, we’ve finally rounded up another suspect. The June 11, 2008 discovery of a one-year-old, one-horned deer may put Bambi in the company of the rhinoceros, the narwhal, and the oryx as creatures who spawned the enduring myth of the unicorn.
In this case, the single horn on the Italian deer found at a wildlife preserve in the town of Prato, outside of Florence, is attributed to a genetic mutation, but its discoverers aren’t ruling out the possibility that other creatures with similar abnormalities could have been spotted throughout history, and contributed to the persistent unicorn legend. Whatever the present-day implications of this discovery, however, historically speaking, scientific evidence has seldom played a role when it comes to believing in unicorns.
Before they were ubiquitous in contemporary little girl culture — and across the intellectual spectrum, from 15th-century tapestries now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to transporting Doogie Howser in the latest Harold & Kumar installment — rumors of unicorns were passed across the continents, and through the centuries, in something akin to an enormous game of telephone… read more >
