Nico the Amazing Bunny Hunter

[RottieGrrrl]

Several days ago I let Nico (my 130 lbs rott for those who don't know) out as usual in the morning to do her business before we head out to work. I walk out with her to have my smoke and coffee and to hurry her dilly-dallying butt up, as usual. I open the back door, step outside with her and she goes straight up to a rabbit who is right by the back door sitting up against the house. She starts sniffing it, all excited. (she LOVES bunnies)

At first I'm stunned, 1. The bunny isn't even moving, probably frozen with fear. 2. Nico is not eating the bunny. Just sniffing it curiously.

Then little bunny hops a few feet away and Nico follows it. I yell at her to stop, then I glance over at where mama bunny was sitting. I see all these squirmy little creatures, it's a bunny nest! Mama was nursing! Mama was so brave, she'd rather be eaten then have her babies harmed. And that's why she hopped away I think, so Nico would follow her and not harm her babies.

Later on Mama covered up her nest real good so you can't even see them. I did some research on bunny nests and this is what I leared.

1. Rabbits hide nests in plain site many times. People think they have come across an abandoned nest and try to "help" by taking them in. 90 percent of the time they will die if people do this. The fact is rabbits rarely abandon their nests, even if mama dies the dad will take over. (he can't nurse though, obviously) Mama only comes to the nests a couple of times, dusk, or night, and nurses only for about 5 minutes. You see a nest leave it alone.

2. Myth: If you touch the babies mama will abandon them because of the human scent. That's an old wives tale (boy that term is rather sexist isn't it?) that I was brought up to believe myself. The fact is that the scent of a human is not enough of a danger signal to overcome Mama's natural maternal instincts.

I would think the same rules apply for other wildlife. I saw a baby bird on a hot pavement parking lot, and I called up the local wildlife place, they told me leave it there, mama will be back. Honestly I couldn't. there was no trees around and the pavement was boiling. I couldn't let the little birdie fry there. I took it home, it lived for several days, it was eating too, but it died.

I know people who have taken in skunks, but I tell them around here (Dupage County) that's illegal. Skunks are rabid and need to be destroyed here. I don't know about how it is in other places though.

OH Yeah, and sometimes Mama will move a nest (like I expected this one to do after her nest was discovered by us) and people may see some stray bunny left behind. If people take the stray bunny in Mama will be looking frantically later on for her lost baby! She will be back!

But I WAS SO PROUD OF MY BABY GIRL! And people were telling me she would be a squirrel/bunny/whatever killer when I got her. Ha!

Edited June 7, 2008 by RottieGrrrl

[Watered Garden]

When our house was built, it was a while before we got the yard seeded, and erosion wore several furrows in the side near the driveway. (the house is somewhat on a hill.) We left the furrows as is, and and gradually filling them in. They are probably no more than 3-4 inches deep at the worst places, just enough to give your spine a nice jolt when you are mowing on a riding mower. First time he mowed, my husband pointed out to me that in one of the furrows was a little nest with soft grasses and brown-gray fur. A bunny had had her nest there, but because of the long, cool spring and early summer, she managed to get them raised and gone before they were mowed over.

Invisible from the house, safe from marauding dogs down the road, and too late to be discovered by the new puppy.

Too cool.

WG

[waysider]

Edited June 8, 2008 by waysider

[doojable]

[TheHighWay]

Once, when I was on mowing-duty at HQ, I was cutting around the flagpole at the auditorium with a push mower and stooped to pick up what looked like a clump of dead grass that was laying there. As I lifted the clump, several baby bunnies came zooming out of the hole and then stopped, frozen, pretending I didn't see them. Since it was all open space, nowhere for them to easily hide, and I didn't want to distress them any more than I already had, I went to another section to mow and finished the flagpole area later when they had disappeared again. But I was surprised that mama bunny had chosen such an exposed area to build her nest. Maybe the grass had been just long enough at that point that she thought she was safe. (She obviously didn't know twi's penchant for perfectly manicured lawns!)