<-back to articles

Spring Bunnies

by David Lockard :: Featured: June, 2003

Spring is here and the Cottontail rabbits have become romantically inclined along with many other animals. Two feet of snow on the ground this winter provided limited access to grasses in this portion of Pennsylvania. Throughout the winter the rabbits remained hidden usually coming out only under cover of darkness to forage on twigs of the shrubbery in my yard. On one sunny winter day during the preparation of my lunch, I gazed out onto the white winter landscape and observed movement just off my deck in the middle of a bare twigged fire bush. Standing on his hind feet and stretching up within the bush was a rabbit snipping off tender twigs having his lunch to.

The snow is gone now and the colorful spring flowers have replaced the cold gray of winter. Rabbit behavior has also changed and the rabbit that always hung out in my backyard has taken to the front yard now and began to be more visible in daylight hours, particularly during dawn and dusk.

To my mind Cottontails make their nests in the strangest of places, flower beds and in the middle of a well mowed yard are two examples. They typically excavate a hole about five inches by seven inches and about five inches deep. From the nests that I have observed these measurements seem generous but the hole is then lined with grass and fur which the mother plucks from her own body. This makes the hole look much smaller as well as cozy and soft.

Four to five young are born on average, although there is a range of possibilities which can be as high as 12. The bunnies are born with fur and are blind. Their eyes are open in about a week and they are weaned in four to five weeks. The rabbits raised on my property live a dangerous life. I shudder to think how many times I have mowed over the nest in the middle of the yard, before I noticed that small patch of dead grass which turned out to be a rabbit nest. Twice I have saved a nest from my wife’s digging in our spring flower beds. On one occasion she called me to exterminate the rat’s nest she had found in the mulch. On further examination it was discovered to be a rabbit nest and the cute little bunnies were saved from the fate of an ugly rat.

The maternally minded rabbit seems to have become friendlier, allowing me to come closer than at other times of the year. She does not however set on the nest and only visits the nest one or two times a day to feed her young which is normally at dawn or dusk. She then recovers the nest and goes about her daily rabbit business of eating and sitting in her “form” which is a secluded resting spot giving some protection from the view of predators and the ravages of the weather.

When the bunnies come out of their nest they are most vulnerable but still have an amazing ability to run and hide. They are very cute at this stage but it is also the time that my attitude toward them begins to change as they wean themselves on the fresh tender sprouts that I am trying to get started in my garden. I put rabbit fencing up to help manage the problem but I have often come to the garden to find one trapped within the fencing franticly looking for the exit hole. The other management tool is my beagle which is more then willing to take adolescent rabbits for an exercise run. You must be careful not to put your dog onto a small bunny because you don’t want them to catch them, just exercise them. I think they both enjoy the run and I enjoy the baying sound of excitement as Barney takes to the trail.

Spring is a wonderful time of the year, the newness of life, the freshness of the vegetation and the renewing of many more rabbit hunts to come.