24-06-2005, 01:07 AM
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In article . com,
wrote:
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?
It wasn't there a couple of months ago when I planted the little apple
tree.
Priscilla
--
"Inside every older person is a younger person -- wondering what
the hell happened." -- Cora Harvey Armstrong
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