Cute Rodent of the Week: Bunny Rabbits

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Sunday, May 19. 2013

Cute Rodent of the Week: Bunny Rabbits

North America hosts a number of species and subspecies of Cottontail Rabbits. Around here, we have the Eastern Cottontail. (There is also one named the New England Cottontail, but I could not tell the difference.)

They are most abundant here in the later summer and fall, but their numbers nosedive during the winter mostly due to predation by owls, hawks, coyotes, and Red Fox. The cottontails' position on the food chain leads to an annual survival rate of around 20%.

When we see one hop out of its nesting "form" when mowing, we mow around it.

Here's a list of the rabbits and hares of North America

Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation, Our Essays at 12:31 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)

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"due to predation by owls, hawks, coyotes, and Red Fox" and feral cats.

The wildcat named Bill who we are re-domesticating was death on those cottontails last year. Even the full grown ones.

#1 forest on 2013-05-19 13:42 (Reply)

The house rule for the dog is leave the bunnies alone.

http://rhhardin.blogspot.com/2010/07/found-bunny.html

She does locate every nest every year, however. It's surprising that any bunny survives if it's that easy to find nests for a predator with a sense of smell.

The survival rate has to be very low on every multi-litter animal or its population would explode.

#2 rhhardin (Link) on 2013-05-19 14:56 (Reply)

My wife has kept house rabbits as pets for many years. If you give them the run of the house, their teeth can be h3ll on furniture, electrical cords, and computer wires, all of which need to be protected from damage. When young, they can be very entertaining, but their curiosity tends to get the better of them and they'll go to work on one of their "projects" behind your back if you don't mind them carefully. They seem to think what you don't know won't hurt you.

#3 Agent Cooper on 2013-05-19 15:12 (Reply)

The list left off that most American of bunnies - the jackalope!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackalope

#4 Charles on 2013-05-19 16:33 (Reply)

Um, syntax error: rabbits aren't rodents. They're lagomorphs.

#5 wolfwalker on 2013-05-19 16:58 (Reply)

Rabbits are not rodents. But it's a classification error, not syntax.

#5.1 AEA on 2013-05-22 11:41 (Reply)

I call them the M&^&!@# @(#*@)! who eat my peas and beans every year.

If I didn't have a full-time job, I would probably spend August hunting them.

#6 NJSoldier on 2013-05-19 17:24 (Reply)

Ask an Australian how warm and fuzzy he feels about bunny rabbits. The likely reply: a warm and fuzzy elimination of the rabbit species from Australia would do just fine. Releasing rabbit-borne diseases has been more successful than poisoning, fences, or hunting in controlling the rabbit population.

#7 Gringo on 2013-05-19 22:06 (Reply)

Rabbits were imported to Aussie-land.
A mistake.

#8 Bird Dog on 2013-05-20 08:14 (Reply)

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Sunday, May 19. 2013

Cute Rodent of the Week: Bunny Rabbits