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Rabbits (General; Miscellaneous)

GNC said:
Sounds like what happened in Australia in the 1950s may be brewing there. I hope they find a more humane solution that myxomatosis.
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I suspect they are also responsible for the lettuce shortage.
 
Nothing wrong with catching a few for the pot.
People don't seem to do that any more.
 
GNC said:
I hope they find a more humane solution that myxomatosis.
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I have a vivid memory of a relative taking a brick and dashing out the brains of a small bunny, which he spotted cowering in a ditch as we approached. It quite took the shine off a walk down the glen in the gloaming.

He regarded it as an act of mercy, as any healthy rabbit would have fled. We then got the saga of myxamatosis, the contagion we gave the rabbits. The world darkened a little that evening; I was eleven and still a bit wet at heart.

I really suspect that stupid bunny was just a bit slow! :oops:
 
My pet rabbit died of myxomatosis, apparently passed on from a wild rabbit snuffling about. RIP Smokey!
 
i had an experience with a suicidal bunny years ago.....

im talking probably 30+ yrs ago here, i was with a couple of mates and we were going fishing on the local canal. anyhow, as we got there we were walking up the towpath and after approx 300yards or so, i noticed this little bunny (not very old) in the water, assuming it was already dead we carried on walking when i saw it move.
so there i am on my hands and knees fishing this soaking wet 3/4 dead rabbit out, it was barely alive. well what else could i do but dump my tackle in my mates hands OOOH..ERRR... MISSUS.... and run the three miles or so home with the poor little sod.
upon getting home my sister was coerced into drying it out with her hair dryer. now this worked a treat it soon turned all fluffy and cute until it regained its composure, and then must have gotten a bit scared at what the hell was happening to it?? it was at this point that it got a bit angry and was trying its hardest to get away - the claws are quite sharp never mind the teeth! anyhow, i thought the best thing to do was wrap it up in something ( i think i used a tee shirt) and take it back to where it lived. i let it go and it shot off back home no doubt telling its mum n dad about what had just happened.
Well, the following day we were back in the same place going fishing again when bugger me.....there in the same place was the same rabbit (ok maybe one of his siblings?) floating in the canal... i was too late this time though sadly
 
You'd think it would have learned from the previous experience.
 
Owing to a genetic mutation, some rabbits do handstands and walk on their forepaws alone when moving quickly.

RabbitHandstand.jpg
A gene defect may make rabbits do handstands instead of hop

To move quickly, some rabbits throw up their back legs and walk on their front paws ...

One defective gene might turn some bunnies’ hops into handstands, a new study suggests.

To move quickly, a breed of domesticated rabbit called sauteur d’Alfort sends its back legs sky high and walks on its front paws. That strange gait may be the result of a gene tied to limb movement, researchers report March 25 in PLOS Genetics.

Sauteur d’Alfort rabbits aren’t the only animal to adopt an odd scamper if there’s a mutation to this gene, known as RORB. Mice with a mutation to the gene also do handstands if they start to run, says Stephanie Koch, a neuroscientist at University College London who was not involved with the rabbit work. ...

While moving slowly from place to place, rabbits with the defective gene can walk normally, alternating their front and hind legs. But rabbits hop to move fast or to travel over long distances. And hopping requires synchronized hind legs to jump at the same time ...

Without that coordination, some hop-less bunnies might do a more drastic handstand than others. But all rabbits with a RORB mutation use their front paws to move quickly ...

Uncovering how that genetic defect affects the body more broadly could be important for understanding the way all animals move. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/rabbit-handstand-front-paws-gene-defect-video

VIDEO of a rabbit walking on its forepaws is available at the link.
 
plastic wiganer said:
i had an experience with a suicidal bunny years ago.....

im talking probably 30+ yrs ago here, i was with a couple of mates and we were going fishing on the local canal. anyhow, as we got there we were walking up the towpath and after approx 300yards or so, i noticed this little bunny (not very old) in the water, assuming it was already dead we carried on walking when i saw it move.
so there i am on my hands and knees fishing this soaking wet 3/4 dead rabbit out, it was barely alive. well what else could i do but dump my tackle in my mates hands OOOH..ERRR... MISSUS.... and run the three miles or so home with the poor little sod.
upon getting home my sister was coerced into drying it out with her hair dryer. now this worked a treat it soon turned all fluffy and cute until it regained its composure, and then must have gotten a bit scared at what the hell was happening to it?? it was at this point that it got a bit angry and was trying its hardest to get away - the claws are quite sharp never mind the teeth! anyhow, i thought the best thing to do was wrap it up in something ( i think i used a tee shirt) and take it back to where it lived. i let it go and it shot off back home no doubt telling its mum n dad about what had just happened.
Well, the following day we were back in the same place going fishing again when bugger me.....there in the same place was the same rabbit (ok maybe one of his siblings?) floating in the canal... i was too late this time though sadly
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I read a few years back the brilliant 'bunny suicides books' had me in stitches

images (2).jpeg9780452286238.jpeg713hV19cGsL.jpg
 
How did we miss this?
News story

Darius, the world's oldest and largest rabbit, has been kidnapped! Police are investigating, but who steals a giant rabbit? Maybe now the pubs are open again, someone will sidle up to you and ask, "Wanna buy a big bunny?" Seriously, though, I guess some people will steal anything, but won't the ramifications be more trouble than they're worth?
 
Well, if you insist on not using the Rabbits thread for rabbit news... sassen frassen rassen...
 
GNC said:
How did we miss this?
News story

Darius, the world's oldest and largest rabbit, has been kidnapped! Police are investigating, but who steals a giant rabbit? Maybe now the pubs are open again, someone will sidle up to you and ask, "Wanna buy a big bunny?" Seriously, though, I guess some people will steal anything, but won't the ramifications be more trouble than they're worth?
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It will make a fair few rabbit pies :oops:
 
Souleater said:
It will make a fair few rabbit pies :oops:
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Joking aside, I'd say it would be worth a lot more alive, and as it's 10 years old now, that might not be for much longer without the TLC of its owner. If it lasts till next Easter it could be the Sunday roast, though.
 
GNC said:
Joking aside, I'd say it would be worth a lot more alive, and as it's 10 years old now, that might not be for much longer without the TLC of its owner. If it lasts till next Easter it could be the Sunday roast, though.
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TBH the £2000 reward must be tempting to the bunnynapper, difficult to hide a 4.5 ft rabbit.
 
Rabbit rescuers were overwhelmed and breaking down under the burden of treating feral rabbits in an Edmonton cemetery for syphilis. The good news is that the problem is decreasing. The bad news is it's decreasing because the bunnies are dying of rabbit haemorrhagic disease.
Edmonton's syphilitic cemetery bunnies killed off by different rare rabbit disease

A fluffle of feral cemetery rabbits at a northwest Edmonton cemetery, plagued by a syphilis outbreak in 2020, has been wiped out by a different and rare illness. ...

Rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) was discovered in three bunnies living in the colony at and around Holy Cross Cemetery in September, according to a memo from the Alberta government. By the end of September about 50 had died or disappeared.

Very few, if any, are still alive.

“It was a very hot virus that rapidly ran through the colony and killed essentially all the feral domestic rabbits,” Margo Pybus, University of Alberta professor and wildlife disease expert, said in an email.

This disease is highly infectious with a rapid onset, and is almost always fatal in European rabbits, of which pet rabbits are descendants. It causes organ damage and internal bleeding. In some places it has spread to wildlife. ...

Before it was decimated, the libidinous fluffle of feral domestic rabbits lived at the cemetery and surrounding areas for about 30 years. ...
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FULL STORY: https://edmontonjournal.com/news/lo...s-killed-off-by-different-rare-rabbit-disease
 
plastic wiganer said:
i had an experience with a suicidal bunny years ago.....

im talking probably 30+ yrs ago here, i was with a couple of mates and we were going fishing on the local canal. anyhow, as we got there we were walking up the towpath and after approx 300yards or so, i noticed this little bunny (not very old) in the water, assuming it was already dead we carried on walking when i saw it move.
so there i am on my hands and knees fishing this soaking wet 3/4 dead rabbit out, it was barely alive. well what else could i do but dump my tackle in my mates hands OOOH..ERRR... MISSUS.... and run the three miles or so home with the poor little sod.
upon getting home my sister was coerced into drying it out with her hair dryer. now this worked a treat it soon turned all fluffy and cute until it regained its composure, and then must have gotten a bit scared at what the hell was happening to it?? it was at this point that it got a bit angry and was trying its hardest to get away - the claws are quite sharp never mind the teeth! anyhow, i thought the best thing to do was wrap it up in something ( i think i used a tee shirt) and take it back to where it lived. i let it go and it shot off back home no doubt telling its mum n dad about what had just happened.
Well, the following day we were back in the same place going fishing again when bugger me.....there in the same place was the same rabbit (ok maybe one of his siblings?) floating in the canal... i was too late this time though sadly
Click to expand...
One wonders if that spot is a deadly trap for rabbits, like that Scottish bridge is for dogs.
 
EnolaGaia said:
Rabbit rescuers were overwhelmed and breaking down under the burden of treating feral rabbits in an Edmonton cemetery for syphilis. The good news is that the problem is decreasing. The bad news is it's decreasing because the bunnies are dying of rabbit haemorrhagic disease.

FULL STORY: https://edmontonjournal.com/news/lo...s-killed-off-by-different-rare-rabbit-disease
Click to expand...
If any species apart from humans is going to die of a sexually-transmitted disease my money is firmly on rabbits.
 
What in blazes are they letting diggers live in a cemetery for?

We had a muntjac eat the flowers.

But that is not as bad as bunnies digging up graves
 
I think it is proved now that rabbits came with the Romans https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47963324 . But did they disappear after that, needing to be reintroduced by the Normans? Maybe they were much more fragile and not very hardy in those days, needing special care?
 
@maximus otter Did they have wellness officers in your days in the cops? Vid at link.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Forget a K9 unit, this police station has a bunny

Meet Officer Hops, the Yuba City Police Department's furry 'wellness officer'. The California police station added a bunny to the team in 2022. Watch to see what he hopped his way into these officers hearts.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-65209664
 
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