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What's Going On Hare?
By Bunny Stamler
I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye as I walked around the side of the house. A small brown object in my flowerbed silently turned the corner into the backyard. Quietly I stepped around and saw, on the freshly mowed lawn, my wild namesake.
This was not the first time my family had seen the little brown dappled bunny, known commonly as a swamp rabbit. The newly developed residential neighborhood where I now live literally hops with wild rabbits. In fact just about any open undeveloped area in the Houston-Galveston area near water is likely home to these cute creatures. You'll see them along the sides of city streets in the mowed stretches usually at sundown, munching on grass and weeds to their hearts’ content.
One day, excited neighborhood children breathlessly told me they had chased the bunny under the gate into my backyard. (Don't fall down a rabbit hole, children, lest you end up like poor Alice!)
Our local swamp rabbits hide mainly in brush rather than in underground burrows. It is not uncommon to see them in new residential areas because they are very territorial, keeping to a specific local range even when that area has been developed and populated by dogs and children who cannot resist chasing them.
Swamp rabbits are not as prolific as other rabbits, having only two or three offspring a year. The babies are born with their eyes closed and with very dense fur with an undercoat that essentially waterproofs the rabbit.
In a local office complex, a mother swamp rabbit had her babies under an azalea bush in the outside smoking area next to a six-story building. Wise workers knew to leave the babies alone while the mother rabbit was gone during the day. Within a few weeks the employees watched the babies grow and eventually scamper off.
If you find baby rabbits, it is best to leave them where they are. Like deer, the mothers leave their offspring alone for much of the day in what they think are safe places.
You might be concerned that swamp rabbits will eat your prized landscaping. The only thing I’ve noticed my wascally wabbit eating is the abundance of acorns that have fallen in my yard.
Before NASA landed a man on the moon, many people saw the face of the Man in the Moon on Earth’s natural satellite. For centuries, many more cultures saw a rabbit’s face on the moon. Ancient peoples celebrated the end of winter and the renewal of the growing season during the vernal equinox. This was also the time when hares would gather in fields to fight for mates. Because this behavior took place at night in March and could be seen only during a full moon, the phrase “Mad March Hare” was born. Eventually rabbits became spring fertility symbols, later being incorporated into the modern tradition of the Easter Bunny delivering colorful eggs.
I certainly wouldn’t mind finding the Easter Bunny in my backyard this Easter. Hope he comes to your house too. Have a marvelous and blessed Easter!
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