Thread: Burrower ID?
View Single Post
  #5   Report Post  
Old 22-06-2005, 03:41 PM
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Priscilla Ballou wrote:
I don't think this was a hutch-kept rabbit but rather a house pet. It
may be operating on instincts alone right now. There are wild rabbits
somewhere around these parts, so I hope this one has been neutered,
particularly if it's female.


Domesticated rabbits are a Eurasian species, Oryctolagus cuniculus. In
the eastern US, the wild rabbits are cottontails, Sylvilagus
floridanus. I doubt they can hybridize. European rabbits are usually
social, unlike the solitary cottontails, so I'm not sure how long a
single escaped rabbit would survive.

European rabbits dig burrows, but Cottontails do not. So, if you have
found a rabbit burrow, it is almost certainly made by the escaped pet.
My money would be on groundhogs, though. Is it possible you have found
an abandoned burrow?