Since I've lived out in the sticks, I have consistently seen one or two adult rabbits around. The past week or so, both my neighbors and I have noticed more baby rabbits that we've ever noticed before. I saw a few in my front yard with an adult rabbit nearby. I've seen the population levels of other critters ebb & flow (turkey, fox) and figured it was just the cycle of predator/prey/food availability and shifting territories. But the population of rabbits has always seemed to be consistently low. They only live a year (2 at the most) in the wild, so I guess the continued supply over the years had gotta come from somewhere. Maybe I just happened to notice this warren of rabbits at this particular phase, and later--as Agatha Christie would say--Then There Were Two.
@John Brunner Desert dwelling rabbits are usually thought of as "Jack-rabbits": Note the prominent tail and huge ears. We have seen none of those. Around our area, Cottontail Rabbits are common: Note the white bump of fur constituting a tail. We raised Cottontails for food when we lived in the northern woods of Arizona. So, we know a bit about them. Our rabbits around the house never seem to have reached full size; we think predators get them early and in number. Still, there is no shortage of them. Once the babies cease eating mothers' milk, the mother generally totally abandons them; they are on their own. A baby held in human hands and returned to it's mother is invariably shunned, and dies. Rabbits are overall ill-equipped to defend themselves against predators; I have seen a cat catch and kill a rabbit as large as itself. Rabbits' gentle nature and lack of aggressiveness make them seem unusually nice. Frank
"Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit..." We don't have rabbits here unless someone releases a domestic rabbit to the wild and they survive...and reproduce, but we do have snowshoe hares, which cause a great deal of difficulty for gardeners and farmers. Owls, hawks, and lynx are the principle predators with the occasional fox.
The rabbits here are one of the few critters that are not frightened of humans. Maybe they're just not very smart. I can walk right up on them.
They probably got the vaccine. ? Decades ago, we had a twelve pound lop-eared rabbit, so tame the baby could pick it up by one leg or an ear even, and it didn't try to get away. It hopped around and got us if the baby cried. Then , when a six pound chihuahua mix dog a few years old chased it, it suddenly turned on the dog, it reared up on it's hind paws, and HISSED at the dog! (surprised us a bit). The dog turned and ran away.
@John Brunner Desert dwelling rabbits are usually thought of as "Jack-rabbits": Note the prominent tail and huge ears. We have seen none of those. Around our area, Cottontail Rabbits are common: View attachment 46288 Note the white bump of fur constituting a tail. We raised Cottontails for food when we lived in the northern woods of Arizona. So, we know a bit about them. Our rabbits around the house never seem to have reached full size; we think predators get them early and in number. Still, there is no shortage of them. Once the babies cease eating mothers' milk, the mother generally totally abandons them; they are on their own. A baby held in human hands and returned to it's mother is invariably shunned, and dies. Rabbits are overall ill-equipped to defend themselves against predators; I have seen a cat catch and kill a rabbit as large as itself. Rabbits' gentle nature and lack of aggressiveness make them seem unusually nice. Frank @John Brunner My high school buddy and his dad were avid rabbit hunters. Any rabbit which did not run from them in terror were considered to be infected with Tularemia, and was put out of it's misery. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tularemia Frank
There rabbits will run, but you gotta get right on top of them. I recall my father hunting for rabbits. He never hunted them in warm weather, but I always thought that was because of "worms."
I notice a pickup in the rabbit population here also. By 2. (does that count?) Seriously, 30 years ago they were all over the place. Driving through the woods at night you could see more than one at a time in the headlights on the road. Then for years I never saw a single rabbit. Assumed it was due to coyotes. Rabbits would be pretty defenseless against them, I'd think. In the last year I've seen 2. One walked right through the barn one day within 15' while I was sitting quietly in a chair. Another one up near the house I accidently stumbled across walking in tall weeds. Maybe the neighbors have reduced the coyote population?
I was wondering if ebbs & flows in the fox population doesn't have something to do with it. Perhaps coyotes are in the mix as well. I think I've mentioned that in some part of the county people say the coyote are extremely bold. I've only seen one, and that was at a distance. It bolted as soon as it noticed me. We are all equally armed.
Just remembered, when I was a little kid, my father had a home made contraption he called a rabbit box. Looked something like this, only much better carpentry work. Long and narrow. Thinking about it now, seems a bit simple. Rabbits must not be very smart.
I've never seen a rabbits I could walk up on. Wherever I've lived we had cottontails and jackrabbits. When I was five and six years old my dad would say, "Come on bill, lets go getr mom a rabbit or two for a good stew this evening." We'd walk down toward the river and dcad would pick up a few rocks and he could throw straighter than most I thought. He'd always get one, sometime two, but it wouldn't take long. Later when I learned to make slang-shots I was anxious to try it on rabbits. I had two slang shots.One the kind you pulled back on the rubber straps with the marble or rock in the little leather pouch, the other, a large leather pouch for bigger stones with two long straps of leather or clothe which you slung around and let go so that it hurled the rock toward the target. The first one was good for braking telephone pole insulators. I was good at that. ButI remember the first time I went with my dad and took that slingshot. I was anxious to show off my skills but dad said to hold up until he got one by throwing a rock at it. He didn't want me scaring them off. When he said, All right, bill, see what you can do. I got two with my slingshot. From that time on Dad never threw another rock at a rabbit. He'd come in from work, and say, bill, go get your mother a rabbit. We never went together again. Later, I hunted rabits with bows and arrows.