Wild Facts

Playing a Game of Freeze Tag! Photo by: Chief Trent at http://www.flickr.com/photos/texese/106442137/

I was very close to completing a post on the “Millipede” today just to be funny, however, with Easter coming I thought it would be appropriate to end the week with the cute and cuddly Cottontail Rabbit.  Now all you have to do today is sit back, grab some Cadbury Mini-Eggs and enjoy the Easter Wild Facts!

The cottontail rabbit is in the same family as the ever popular snowshoe hare but they are indeed different species. Normally your pet “rabbits” are actually hares.  The cottontail rabbit received its name from the cotton-ball like tail that they possess. I know, thank you Captain Obvious, but I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that little fact!

If you have ever watched a rabbit then you may know that they like to remain completely still hoping that you didn’t see them.  I really don’t think, rabbits know the difference between freezing in the grassy meadow and freezing in the dense bush.  This defense mechanism doesn’t usually work too well when they are in the wide open field.  Therefore, it is a great thing that they have a secondary mechanism which is simply, RUN! They will take off running in a zig-zag pattern reaching speeds up to 29 km/hr (18 mph). I don’t know why they don’t just start with this strategy since it makes more sense to me than remaining still in a field. But, who am I to judge the behaviours of the cottontail rabbit?

Like a lot of people I use to have a pet “rabbit”, well, actually I use to have a couple of pet “rabbits”.  Poor Furball!  He was the best rabbit in the whole wide world!  Okay, I am getting side-tracked!  What I was getting at before my little trip down memory lane was how they use to thump their back feet quite often.  Both domestic and wild rabbits will thump their feet as a form of communication.  It is sort of like saying, “Hey Gizmo (one of my other rabbits) someone is coming so you better stop chewing on the TV cord!” In the wild the conversation would be more along the lines of “All you cottontails that can hear this had better be on the look-out for the fox that is lurking in the bush!” Rabbits also communicate with each other by making grunting noises.  Who knew that the cottontail rabbit had such a diverse vocabulary.

Well folks, enjoy your long weekend and have a Happy Easter!