6:30 p.m. - 2005-03-12
Wendell heart Bunnies!
Greetings, Critter Lovers! I hope you all have been well and making it through the LAST WRETCHED WEEKS OF WINTER.
It's been difficult to decide which animals to feature lately; namely because there have not been many sightings.
Today I saw a hawk "tenting" over some food, which I guess means "leaning over with wings covering the food". But I already wrote about hawks. My friend E who lives in Moscow emailed me, and stated that in Russia, squirrels are considered "rare forest creatures" and sightings are exciting events. So think of that the next time you curse the chittering, buck-toothed menace in your neighborhood!
I will write about another commonly observed mammal in the northern US: the Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus). Better known as the soft, cute bunny!
Rabbits were recently in the news because a very ancient fossil of a rabbit-like animal was found in Mongolia. This fossil suggests that Lagomorphs (the mammal family of pikas, rabbits and hares) and Rodents had a common ancestor that lived among the dinosaurs.
Before we focus on the Eastern Cottontail, let's compare rabbits and hares. (Jackrabbits are hares too). While closely related, rabbits and hares differ in that rabbit babies are hairless and helpless, hare babies are born with hair and open eyes. Hares also possess more superpowers, including the ability to run at 45 mph and jump 15 to 20 feet in a single leap!
The Eastern Cottontail is the most commonly seen rabbit in the the US. Hares, Jackrabbits and Snowshoe Hares are found in the west and southwest, with the latter being found in Canada and Alaska as well. An endangered (and extra-fuzzy!) American rabbit is the Pygmy rabbit, which is also found in the west. Conservationists are trying to preserve a population of Pygmy rabbits in Washington state, as they are isolated from other groups of the species. Human development in the area is killing off Pygmy rabbits' main wintertime food: sagebrush. Save the Pygmy rabbit!
In the "ew, gross!" category: rabbits are copraphagists, otherwise known as animals that eat their own poop! Rabbits have two kinds of poop: a soft, green kind that still has some nutritional value, (which they then eat) and the brown little balls that are more commonly seen.
Eastern cottontails are solitary and territorial, and do dig holes, but not the maze-like warrens of hares. There is a lot of love in bunny life, which includes a mating dance (which I observed at my alma mater, LU!). The mating dance consists of one rabbit running toward the other, then stopping and leaping straight up into the air! The other bunny then leaps up in the air! This pattern repeats itself until the rabbits (I imagine) go off under some bushes for mating.
Baby rabbits are born after about one month of gestation. The mother digs a shallow hole for the babies (called "kittens"!) and feeds them in the morning and at night. (One time R and I were walking back from Ben and Jerry's and found a hole full of baby bunnies right by my apartment! It was a special moment.) Check out this pic from www.jrvs.net: 
Rabbits have about four litters of 4 to 8 tinies. They breed a lot because they're at the bottom of the food chain, and are preyed upon by cats, foxes, bobcats, dogs, weasels, racoons, hawks and eagles. And people.
I think this has been the most difficult Critter Corner entry to write. Perhaps it is because bunnies are especially close to my heart. I especially like it when I spot a bunny in the morning, huddled up against a wall or a tree, and I really want to go over there and pet it. Thankfully rabbits make good pets (we had several when I was a child), and therefore I actually can pet them occasionally.
Please report to me if you see the rabbit mating dance in action!
xo,
Wendell
