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It has been many years since we have seen rabbits in our yard, and I have blamed this on our neighbors' free roaming cats. However I can honestly say that I have not seen rabbits anywhere, even road-killed rabbits.
I contacted the game commission about the absence of rabbits in our rural area and was told that rabbits are indeed in a low cycle. The game commission gives the primary reason for the decline as the loss of good habitat.
Today's modern equipment allows farmers to clear out and cultivate fencerows, swamps and brushy areas that once provided habitat for rabbits.
At one time, rabbits were the No. 1 game species hunted in Pennsylvania. The game commission had designated rabbit farms, and the farmer was paid for every rabbit that was trapped on the farm and then transferred. The rabbit's image would appear on the covers of the Game News as often as the deer does today.
Mary Alice's grandfather, who had a farm in Spring Grove in York County, told us that he hunted in the Canton area when he was young and in one day killed 24 rabbits.
In addition to the eastern cottontail, Pennsylvania is also home to the Appalachian cottontail, also known as woods rabbit, blue belly and timber hare. The Appalachian cottontail is found in the higher elevations of Pennsylvania and the Appalachian Mountains. Even though they are separate species, the Appalachian cottontail and eastern cottontail are nearly identical in appearance.
Although both have a grayish brown pelt flecked with black, and a white tail, there can be some subtle physical differences. Most Appalachian cottontails have a small black spot on their foreheads, while about half of all eastern cottontails have a white spot at the same place.
We also have the snowshoe rabbit in Pennsylvania, which is actually not a rabbit but a hare. The larger snowshoe hare's fur turns white during the winter, allowing it to blend into the snow-covered landscape, while the fur of a cottontail rabbit remains brown year-round. Despite this seasonal difference, visual identification can still be difficult during the summer months depending on the distance, angle of the sighting, and experience of the reporter.
During the winter months while working as a wildlife officer, I would release snowshoe hares in the mountain areas of my district. Although these stockings did not appear to be successful, we do have small populations of snowshoe rabbits within the state. The game commission is currently conducting a study on the snowshoe hare.
Scientists have had a hard time deciding how to classify the rabbit and the hare. In the past, they were grouped with rodents, along with rats and squirrels. Now, scientists have lumped rabbits and hares into an order of their own. Rabbits and hares in one family and the pika in another. There are over 60 wild species and eighty domestic varieties belonging to the grouping Lagomorpha.
Rabbits and hares are often confused with each other. There are ten genera of rabbits and one genus of hares. For example, there is the snowshoe rabbit and the jack rabbit, which are not rabbits but hares, while the hispid hare of India and the red hare of Africa are rabbits.
The easiest way to tell a rabbit from a hare is to look at a young newborn. Hares are born above ground, while rabbits are born in an underground nest. A hare is born fully furred, with its eyes open, and able to hop shortly after birth. A rabbit is born hairless, blind and does not leave the nest for approximately 18 days.
Both rabbits and hares have long ears. These long ears are an aid in hearing approaching danger, however their most important function is to help control the body temperature. The long ears have large veins that dissipate surplus body heat. Rabbits and hares living in colder climates have much smaller ears than those living in the tropics.
The European rabbit was introduced into New Zealand. They multiplied and ate the sheep's food. To stop the rabbits, cats were released to kill the rabbits, however the cats preferred the sea birds, which were an important food for the native people. The cure for this was to release dogs to kill the cats, but the dogs started killing the local seals. The dogs did not control the cats that did not control the rabbits that should not have been released in the first place. New Zealand spent millions of dollars trying to control the pesky rabbits.
When the rabbits arrived in Australia, they marched across the land like a plague. To stop them, a continent-wide fence was built, but the fence did help because the rabbits dug under the fence. Relief came in the form of a disease known as myxomatosis, which is fatal to the European rabbit. This disease killed off 99% of the rabbits, but the European rabbit has now seemed to develop some resistance to the disease and are on the rebound.
Rabbits eat entirely vegetable matter, but according to the International Wildlife magazine, rabbits and hares have a special way of getting the most from their food. They do this by coprophagy, meaning that they eat their own droppings. Not the familiar ones seen on the ground but a softer version that they normally swallow without chewing. By eating these soft pellets, they receive a lot of extra vitamins, especially vitamin B which otherwise would have passed through their system undigested.
Mary Alice and I dated back in high school, and for some reason, If I was lucky enough to shoot a rabbit while hunting, I would clean the tail and give it to Mary Alice to wear in her hair, fastened with a bobby pin. This was just a passing fad among the girls at school.
It was also considered that having a rabbit's foot would bring good luck. The practice of cutting off the feet of a rabbit or a hare has existed since at least ancient Roman times. In 77 AD, Pliny the Elder claimed that carrying a hare's foot "cut off from the animal alive" could cure gout.
Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.