Rabbit Battles: Know Thy Enemy

"To know your enemy, you must become your enemy," Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

To understand my enemy, I first must consider some facts on the ravenous beast, this eastern cottontail, the ravisher of my garden's green beans, a mischievous little bunny hiding behind a cloak of cuteness. The cottontail was once considered no more than a rat, lumped into the same family as rodents. (Peter G. Mirick, MassWildlife) In 1912, they were "emancipated," as Mirick says, and placed in a diverse family of "exceptionally cute furballs"  in the Order Lagomorpha.

Just like in the Disney movie, these lagamorphas thump their feet when threatened. They're also lightning quick, hopping at speeds up to 18 mph. They can move their ears nearly 360 degrees, picking up the slightest of sounds in all directions, and these large erect ears also cool their bodies when they overheat. Their big brown eyes see in many directions at once, except straight ahead.

A formidable opponent. 

Rabbits live in silence, except when trapped, when they make "a surprisingly loud squeal full of heart-rending terror." (Mirick) To avoid such a fate, they (except the eastern cottontail variety it seems) spend most of the daytime huddled away hiding, sneaking out at night to feast on anything green, from stem to flower, clover to dandelion, and most anything in a garden. In turn, almost every predator has a sweet-tooth for rabbit, including "man, dog, foxes, coyote, bobcats, cats, weasels, raccoons, mink, great horned owls, barred owls, large hawks, crows, and snakes." (Wild Animals of New England)

 It's hard not to pity this pursued little creature, let alone hate them, but I must try.

The are not all cuteness. First, they eat their own poop. They practice what is called refection, which simply means they re-ingest "their soft, moist fecal pellets" (Wild Animals of New England). They suck this nutrient-rich mush from the small intestines, sending those hard, tiny pellets down the large intestines and out of the anus.

Not so cute anymore, huh? It gets worse.

At any given time, they are infested with "fleas, lice, ticks, cestodes (tapeworms), trematodes (roundworms), maggots of the gray fleshfly and larvae of the botfly ." (Wild Animals of New England) And, these shit-eating, bug-infested bunnies, in particular the eastern cottontail, have pushed our native rabbit, the New England cottontail, to near extinction. As the landscape changes and becomes more suburban, the shy, reclusive New England cottontail has found itself homeless, living on the edge of dwindling rural areas, while the more urban (arrogant?) eastern cottontails thrive.

I have stood there watching an eastern cottontail sprawled out and watching me as I hoed weeds in my garden, unafraid and seemingly waiting for me to leave my vegetables unprotected. The New England cottontail would have zigzagged for the woods at first sight of me.

Eastern cottontails, cocky little bastards.

Now that I have the facts, next I will watch them, noting their ways, their movements. As Sun Tzu said, I will become my enemy.

Beware, little bunny. Beware.