I lost a pet rabbit to a fox -- question to others who have gone through this experience

[MoreTreatsPlease]

A few days ago one of my indoor/outdoor pet rabbits ("Alabama") was killed in the backyard by a fox. Alabama loved the backyard, and, over the last few years, spent many happy days rolling around in the dirt beneath the shed, nibbling on veggies in our garden, or lounging beneath an azalea bush. Every evening, an hour before sunset, we would bring him inside to keep him safe.

Last week, I foolishly let him spend an extra half-hour in the backyard after sunset, and a prowling fox caught him and killed him. I feel terrible that his life was ended so brutally. He was a middle-aged rabbit and still had 4 or 5 good years ahead of him.

Going forward, I'm unsure what approach I should take with my other two rabbits. They also love the backyard, and they sit next to the sliding-glass door every morning waiting for me to open it so that they can head outside. My plan is to attempt to capture the fox using a humane trap, and then transport port him 20 or 30 miles to a large wooded area, and release him. There is more than one fox that lives nearby, but there is one in particular who sometimes ventures through our yard. He has distinctive markings that make him recognizable, and he is the fox that killed Alabama. If I can catch him, I think the risk to my other rabbits would be significantly reduced.

For those of you who have lost a pet rabbit to a fox, have you changed your view of allowing rabbits outdoors? Or have you continued to allow them some outdoor time? Have you made any adjustments to increase their safety?

Of course, I could simply confine my remaining rabbits to the indoors -- this solves the fox problem, but deprives them of a big source of joy.

My rabbits love the outdoors and they seem sad and bored when confined to the indoors.

So, hard to know what to do. I'm curious what others in the same situation have done.

 

[Ruth]

So, hard to know what to do. I'm curious what others in the same situation have done.

We have a large yard with free range chickens, geese, and sometimes I used to let my bunnies free range.
However, I lost my favourite lop to some wild dogs in January. I often just let her out in the backyard and she would follow me around. Her cage was a hutch outside and one night she escaped. I wasn't feeling well and I think I didn't latch her cage properly. Plus she was mad at me for something I did and wanted to rebel, so she forced her way out. She was just in the backyard but the dogs jumped the fence and got her. I was devastated for a long time.
I had other bunnies and I stopped letting them free range the yard, until we had some neighbors that caught the wild dogs.
Even with our fence we still get a fox, hawks, cayotes and every once in a while the neighbor's big brown dog, hopping into our yard. I did discover though that if I block off or fence off an area and put a tarp(mesh, even just a sheet) over it and lock that down tight, my bunnies have been safe even if I let them stay overnight. So I do have a couple large areas blocked off outside where they can run and no predator has gotten in. They are free to run in those areas in the day but I still generally lock them up or bring them in before nightfall. I also don't let them out until after 10am because the predators usually come either at night or even once the fox was out at 9 in the morning.

 

[overhear]

I'm so sorry for your loss! I have a friend who has created above-ground tunnels out of chicken wire to allow her chickens to go from one area of her yard to another safely. She has a big hutch area that's covered and another area she calls "Central Park" that's also covered. And the chickens can go between them through these tubes. She did that after a hawk grabbed one of her chickens long ago. It survived but was very traumatized. At night they're locked in the hutch.

 

[lilewis]

I will never let our bunny outside without a cage or fence that is completely covered with overhead protection. A few years ago on the next day a neighbor brought our attention to something horrible that had happened 12 hrs earlier. I then looked back at our security camera and we saw a wild bunny get attacked by a hawk that appeared out of nowhere so fast that even if we were outside we couldn't have helped. The bunny was too heavy for the hawk to fly with so he was eaten on the spot. Only a few remains remained Bunnies who live their lives in a house are easy prey and In my opinion it's just not worth the risk to be outside unless the play area is protected on all sides AND above. Our neutered "Playboy" is the best friend of the 4 people in our house, and he's quite content here. After 6pm every day I sit on floor of the living room and watch the news and every time he comes over to me and lies down on the floor next to me, leaning on my leg while we cuddle and watch tv together.

A couple of months ago I was sitting on a chair coughing trying to expel a popcorn kernel that was stuck in my throat.
As soon as he realized I had a problem he raced at full speed out of his cage and jumped onto the chair and sat with me until I stopped coughing. I was shocked he did that!

He's not a rabbit - he's an excellent family member and we seem to understand each other much better than I had earlier imagined.