One street on my route has free-ranging bunny rabbits. I asked some of the residents about it and they told me that once, many years back, another resident released some domestic bunnies. They went feral and now the neighborhood is home to a large breeding population of them.
They're "wild", but allow you to get close. Of course the locals feed them so they're accustomed to people. I suspect that some of them are the result of cross-breeding with the native cottontails because they look like enormous Eastern cottontail rabbits.
I see this one almost every day. He's classic domestic bunny configuration and coloration. He's really friendly and totally relaxed around people. I often see him with his mouth stuffed with tufts of grass that I assume he carries off to a secret location to cache away for a rainy day, or else to line a nest.
Most of them look like this. Really big, like domestic bunnies, but with coloration more like the Eastern cottontail rabbit. I figure they're the result of cross-breeding between the two types.
2 comments:
According to this site, European rabbits and cottontails can't produce viable offspring, though they will mate. All pet rabbits are descended from European rabbits.
http://www.rabbitsontheweb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40&sid=c9bb500536d083d109f9985d25ecd0bd
Thanks, Mark! I reckon the brown and white ones are just naturally that color. They're definitely not American eastern cottontails, though.
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