Identifying rabbit in yard

[Sazzy]

Hi all, my friend has rabbit visitors in his yard regularly, but these are special rabbits...they're white! I've never seen a wild white rabbit in northeastern Illinois. I'm trying to attach a photo but I can't figure out how. The appearance is just like an eastern cottontail, maybe slightly larger. My friend also had two rabbits growing up, so he's happy to see these guys.

Any idea? Anyone else from the Midwestern US see white bunnies hopping around?

 

[Preitler]

Afaik, although wild white rabbits can be found in the arctic and on mountains, I guess what he has there are feral or escaped domestic rabbits (european rabbits). Neither the eastern cottontail or the swamp rabbit are white, so most likely domestics.

To attach a picture click on "attach files" and select your picture, it can be that there is a size limit, don't know which but everything under 200kb should work though. Windows Picture Viewer can resize pictures.

 

[Sazzy]

That's really strange, I don't see "attach files" anywhere. What I will do though is change my profile pic to the photo of the rabbit my friend sent me so people can see. My friend says he's been seeing these bunnies hopping around his yard for years. Maybe an escaped or abandoned rabbit started a family?

 

[JBun]

Originally I also was going to say that it's probably a feral or stray domestic rabbit and not a wild rabbit, as wild cottontails are agouti colored. I guess in rare instances there could be the odd albinism trait producing a white cottontail, but that isn't albino and also doesn't look like a cottontail to me.

What it does possibly look like is a snowshoe hare. I can't tell for sure just from that picture (and I'm not an expert), but it does appear to have similar coloring and possibly the right body type. So a definite possibility as N. Illinois is just at the edge of their habitat range.



But if the rabbits have a more round head and face (hares are more pointed), and are at all friendly and not naturally skittish of people (unless purposely and intentionally habituated by people), more likely to be feral/stray domestic rabbits. Though the coloration is unusual for a domestic rabbit.

To attach a file, just below the reply section ('Write your reply'), which is after the last post in a thread, there's a green box with 'Attach files' just below that space, to type your reply, and just above the green 'Post reply box.