If you’ve noticed more bunnies in your yard this spring and
summer, you’re not alone. Powt Chawlotte is ovewwun with wascawy wabbits. Where’s
Elmer Fudd when you need him?
We're in a Beatrix Potter storyland, herds
of bunnies hopping about where there were none a year ago. I know the family of
four living under our hibiscus bush so intimately that I’ve named them Flopsy,
Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter. Our dogs now ignore them, considering them
slow-moving lawn ornaments. I may sew them little outfits. God knows, they freeze
for long enough that I’d have no trouble dressing them.
Why so many rabbits this year?
Here’s what we know: They are Eastern cottontails, because of
their telltale white tails. We also know that they breed like, um, rabbits—year
round, with each female bearing as many as 50 kittens (baby bunnies) annually. Their
survival rate this year has apparently been mind-boggling.
Rehabilitation specialist Amy Rhoads, at Peace River Wildlife Center in Punta Gorda, theorized
that, because the food supply is unchanged, the level of predation in our area
must be down. More bobcats hit by cars, fewer hawks, less breeding among feral
cats, that sort of thing. She suggested I call Florida Fish and Wildlife, who
immediately forwarded me to an emergency field agent because they thought I
said, “More rabid.”
“No, no. More rabbits.
Bunny rabbits,” I explained.
“Oh, we don’t handle rabbits.”
“But they’re wildlife,” I reasoned.
That went nowhere. “You want the Florida Department of
Agriculture,” the agent suggested.
The lady at FDA sympathized, but said things could be worse.
We could have bears ravaging our garbage cans, like she does. She recommended the local Extension Service.
Charlotte County Extension Service horticulturist Tom Becker
said that he and Director Ralph Mitchell had been discussing the bunny situation
that very day, before setting out a trial bed of caladium—luckily for them, not
a bunny delicacy. Tom’s hypothesis on the matter: The early growth of
underbrush this spring, in combination with lower levels of predation, has
protected more young bunnies. But he was
intrigued enough to ask where we live and pass the information along to the
master biologist.
Meanwhile, I guess we can live with them. They don’t eat
much. And they’re cute.
