We’re following the development of a cottontail rabbit nest in my backyard vegetable and herb garden. My wife discovered the nest a little more than a week ago. At birth, the six tiny “kittens” – which is how biologists refer to baby bunnies - were blind, deaf, hairless and helpless. Over a matter of only a few weeks, as you can see from the photo above, they have rapidly transformed into miniature versions of their parents. What’s remarkable about this transformation is that the mother rabbit has not shown herself to us once the entire time, but has managed to sneak back to her nest for a few minutes each night to nourish her young.
If you’ve also been exploring your own Backyard Zoo for evidence of rabbits and other native creatures, I’d like to offer just a few words of advice. Observe wild animals carefully and try not to disturb their natural behavior. For example, when my wife and I examine the rabbit nest and take photos to post on this blog, we tread lightly in the garden, remain quiet and probe the vegetation with great care. At some point, perhaps within only a few days, the young rabbits will be ready to leave their nest and disperse into the surrounding landscape, but we don’t want to frighten and send them into the outside world prematurely.
Once they do set out on their own, the six young animals will become potential meals for a variety of local predators. Being cute doesn’t count for much in the struggle for survival. In addition to owls, hawks, foxes and skunks, young rabbits can fall prey to our own cats and dogs. If only one kitten from this nest survives to adulthood that will be a lot. Cottontails breed two to four times each year, each litter can contain as many as eight young, and females are able to produce young in the first year of their lives. If the survival rate wasn’t low, our world would be overrun with rabbits.
In a few days, when the young rabbits disperse, we’ll begin searching the rest of our Backyard Zoo for other interesting creatures.
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