LIFE AND DEATH LESSON

I once read where 70 percent of all cottontail rabbits born die before they reach 5 months of age.  It doesn't sound kind but if you look at real world Mother Nature it often isn't, particularly at the bottom of the food chain.  Nowhere in the wild will you find animals with the anthropomorphic traits Walt Disney would lead you believe to be true.  It's a coyote-eat-cottontail world and only the strong survive.  It's not pretty in a predator-prey world. 

But I still have a bit of a soft spot for young animals.  All this despite shooting thousands of ducks, geese, pheasants, quail, rabbits, deer, turkeys and more over the last few decades.  Herein lies the quandry some of my friends and coworkers find entertaining.  Some have even referred to me as a "closet bunny-hugger." They laugh when I tell them of stories like I've experienced in my backyard for the last week-and-a-half.

It all started when my 18-month-old Lab, Gator, found a nest of rabbits that were no more than a day old.  By the time I saw them he had all six of them out on the grass and was rolling around on his back, playfully flipping one of them up into the air.  Two were already dead from the slobbering and cold evening.  I kenneled Gator and put the remaining four back in the hole and covered them with grass and fur. 

The next morning I checked on them and two more were dead.  I had my twin boys with me and they are well-aware of how nature works and although sad they realized the perils of being a prey species.  Had the neighborhood cats found them (don't get me started on free-range cats) they would all have been killed and maybe some of them eaten.  Gator was just looking for a play toy in his own backyard. 

So for the next week every morning and evening when I let Gator out of his kennel to feed and let him run I covered the hole with a Rubbermaid tub.  Occasionally, my boys would go out to check on the rabbits' status and hold them and show them to other neighborhood kids.  After they were done they'd stuff them back in the hole and cover them up.  So it went for the next week.

It's important to note that not once during the last 10 days did I ever see the female rabbit at the hole, or even in my fenced backyard for that matter.  She fed them under the cover of darkness and they grew well and rapidly.  All wild animals should be left in the wild, no matter what it appears.   

Finally, the other morning I forgot to put the tub over the hole and when I went back out Gator was chasing the two small rabbits, who were now able to run all over the place, around as a game.  Once again, I put the young rabbits back in the hole although they barely fit.  I put Gator up and went back to check on them and they were gone and nowhere to be seen and likely now fending for themselves.   

Rabbits have raised more than a dozen litters in my backyard in recent years.  Some of them make it to adulthood while others haven't been so fortunate.  Watching them grow is a natural life lesson.  Understanding they die and why is also the same.