Nature Connection: For The Love Of Rabbits

As spring holidays approach, it is hard to escape all the cute little bunnies that pop up everywhere, whether fluffy stuffed ones or yummy chocolate ones. Rabbits are a natural symbol for spring, being fertile little critters that may reproduce multiple times from now until fall weather sets in. They’re also adorable, unless they are chowing down on your favorite flowers or lettuce leaves.

Our most common rabbit here on Cape Cod is the eastern cottontail, a non-native species introduced as a game animal in the early 1900s. The native New England cottontail has been declining in numbers ever since, due in part to competition with the introduced species but also because of habitat decimation. Although the two species may overlap in some areas, the New England cottontail is a rabbit that prefers thickets to open areas and the eastern cottontail prefers the more open environments that now include our lawns and fields.

A female cottontail may have three to four litters of four babies each in a season, which may run from late January until September. Even though we think of rabbits living in burrows and warrens underground, our rabbits prefer small indentations they make in the grass or leaves, called forms. If you have rabbits in your area, you can probably find where they rest or sleep by walking the property and finding their neat little hideaways.

When it comes time to have young, the female may mate with several males, going into estrus after the mating takes place. After a month or so she will give birth to her blind, hairless young in a small depression softened by grasses and her own fur. The depression that may be a few inches deep and about a foot in diameter in places we may think are a little crazy, often right out in the open. She covers the babies with more grasses and then watches the nest from afar during the day. Around dusk she will return to the nest to feed her young, leaving again as dawn returns. 

Several rabbits may nest in close proximity to each other, especially if food, water, and good hiding spots are readily available.

After giving birth, a female rabbit may become receptive to mating almost immediately. The baby rabbits will be on their own within four or five weeks, just in time for mom to have a new litter. Even allowing for four litters a season, very few of these babies may make it to adulthood. As you probably know, baby rabbits are a favorite prey of many animals and birds. Those that do make it to adulthood can reproduce as early as six months of age. Wild rabbits may live two years, but most are lucky to make it a full year.

Rabbits love to eat, and they eat a lot. They are vegetarians and focus on grasses, flowers, buds and in the winter, twigs. There are very few plants a rabbit won’t eat, but they don’t dig up bulbs or eat roots unless they have become exposed. 

For those of us with gardens, rabbits can become unwelcome pests. Our habits of weed-free lawns and gardens where plants are surrounded by mulch but isolated from other plants are open invitations to rabbits and their woodchuck friends. Those of us who allow clover, dandelions and cresses to grow in our lawns and who plant our native plants and shrubs closer together have fewer problems. These plants seem to be preferred, at least in our neighborhood, and the rabbits leave the other plants alone. 

Over the past few years many have complained that they have seen an increase in the rabbit population and I have to admit that we, too, have seen a large increase in our neighborhood. At the moment we have three active rabbits in a tiny yard, and I suspect two nests that are already with young. I’m still looking for the third.

Natural predators abound. Red-tailed hawks, owls, red foxes and coyotes all take rabbits on a regular basis. Fishers will also take rabbits, and our pet dogs and cats will snatch a rabbit as well when given the opportunity.

If you are preparing to rake or mow your lawn, maybe give it a walk through looking for rabbit nests first. Having dogs doesn’t deter them from nesting, as many of us can confirm. I’ve heard it said that rabbits will pick a yard with dogs, perhaps hoping the dog will protect them from other predators, but that sounds a bit iffy to me. Most dogs will disturb a rabbit nest in two seconds and even gobble up the tiny babies, so that seems like a poor strategy to me.

If you’ve had baby rabbits in the yard you probably are well aware that they will let you walk right up to them, at least at first. This makes them easy prey, especially for young predators learning the ropes of hunting. It’s an interesting world out there, isn’t it? There’s a balance between prey and predator, but it isn’t always pretty or subtle.

As spring works her magic, keep your eyes out for the rabbit action going on around us. They’re everywhere. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re not going anywhere soon, so it’s best we learn to live with them.