'My' 4th Rabbit?

[MyBabyBunnies]

We recently moved into a new subdivision where we built a house. Well we have a wild 'pet' that comes to visit daily.

Meet 'Chester' as he's come to be known, the neighborhood rabbit.

He is rather tame for a wild rabbit, he will walk up to you or allow you to walk up to him until you get about 4'. On more then one occasion I have stumbled across him sprawled out under a tree watching us, or in the picking through the potato mounds for weeds. Today my Oma and Opa were outside working in the potatoes and I watched him from the kitchen just calmly sit and eat while watching them. He never even moved until they were about 4' away and boy did he scare them.

Too bad I'll have to make sure he can't come in the yard when I move back with my bunnies, I love seeing the wild rabbits.

 

[Bramble Briar86]

Awww, i think he's cute! :inlove:Has anyone ever really got close enough to make sure "Chester" is a boyonder:? LOL

Ellie and the Buns:bunnydance:

 

[Spring]

OH wow! Where do you live?! Our wild rabbits here are pretty small and have small ears!! That bun has the same head shape of a moose or something . How cool!

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

LOL, we don't know, it just sounds right.

Our wild rabbits are quite big. It probably weighs as much asMocha (7 lbs) but since it's much leaner it's bigger. I live in Alberta, Canada. The wild rabbits really are all over the place this year.

 

[Spring]

Oh! What a difference provinces make! I live in BC, and our wild buns are probably maybe 4 pounds at tops? (guesstimate) I'll find a picture of a wild rabbit we have here...

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

Well I'm guessing, I'm bad at estimating but it's possible they're only 5 or 6 lbs but still, theylook bigger than my 7.5 lb boy that's for sure.

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

I just looked it up and I was right, the adults weigh roughly 7.5 lbs on average.

 

[daisy052104]

I saw a wild rabbit very similar to Chester at a golf course in Nebraska a few weeks ago.

 

[naturestee]

Cool! Is he a hare, or is he actually a rabbit? He looks hare-like to me. I'm jealous. We don't get them here.

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

It's a White-Tailed Jack Rabbit, not a hare. We have them everywhere.

 

[Snuggys Mom]

Look at those ears! EEEK! I want to touch them!

That is so cool that you get to see him so often. I wouldLOVE that. I'm so jealous!

 

[ilovetegocalderon]

Wow - he is so interesting looking. i've never seen that head shape before.

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

Here's a website that shows another picture.

http://www.sd4history.com/Unit2/jack_rabbit.htm

I'm so used to seeing them that I don't even notice things like their heads. Plus, I've been more entertained by the fact that he'll contently sit 5' from you and clean himself or do a DBF.

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

naturestee wrote:

Cool! Is he a hare, or is he actually a rabbit? He looks hare-like to me. I'm jealous. We don't get them here.

Oops, my apologies. Although it's named a white-tailed jack rabbit, it's actually a hare.

 

[nose_twitch]

Awwww I love this guy!

What is the difference between a hare and a rabbit anyway?

:threadhijacked

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

"This is a very good question because most people often confuse rabbits and hares, but they are very different in several ways. Hares are generally larger, and have longer hind legs and longer ears than rabbits. When hares are born, they have a full coat of fur and their eyes are open. Their mothers either drop them on the bare ground at birth or into a slight depression in the ground. A young hare is called a leveret.

Rabbits, on the other hand, are more compact. Their young, called bunnies, are born hairless and blind. The mother rabbit lines a nest with grass, bark and soft stems. Over this, she places a layer of hair that she plucks from her own body. When she leaves the nest, she covers the bunnies with more hair and dead plants to keep them warm and hidden from enemies."

Source: http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec99/946002744.Zo.r.html

 

[nose_twitch]

Thanks MBB! I went to the source, and it said that hares rarely fight amongst themselves. I wonder if they could ever be domesticated. That would do away with the bonding issues everyone has with rabbits.

 

[Pipp]

MyBabyBunnies wrote:

Here's a website that shows another picture.

http://www.sd4history.com/Unit2/jack_rabbit.htm

I'm so used to seeing them that I don't even notice things like their heads. Plus, I've been more entertained by the fact that he'll contently sit 5' from you and clean himself or do a DBF.

He'll do a DBF right in front of you?? What a self-assured rabbit! er... hare!! (A DHF??). They turn white in the winter, right? I get the jack rabbits and the snowshoe hares mixed up.

sas (a former albertan)

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

Jack Rabbits turn white as well, it's Cottontails that don't.

He is very calm, the only time I've actually tried to get close is for those pictures, otherwise I tell my family to leave him be and not approach him or feed him but he tends to come over himself. Not only will he do a 'DHF' right in front of us, he will not move from one if you are walking towards him. Most of the time we don't see him until we're rather close.

It's funny, one day my dad was in the back working and he sat there and watching for hours, when my dad went to the front, he soon realised the rabbit followed him! He would follow him from the front to back and watch him. :shock:

 

[Pipp]

His eyes are amazing!

The tip of his ears are black?

Great pics, btw.

sas et al