I found a wild rabbit: what do I do?
If you happen to go on a trip to the countryside or live in a peripheral area surrounded by nature, you may come across wild rabbits or hares on your way.
But what should you do if you come across a lone and abandoned baby rabbit?
What to do or not to do
The first idea that may come to mind is to take the abandoned baby rabbit home with you, but don’t do it! The best thing to do in these cases, in fact, to safeguard the health of the bunny, if it does not need care, is to leave it where it is.
It is important to realize that wild rabbits cannot be considered pets and should not be treated as such. If you don’t know their natural habits, you risk compromising the development of the animal. But let’s shed some light on the subject to understand more.
If you find yourself in a field and the rabbit’s burrow made of grass, twigs, and fur seems abandoned, it is because mothers have the habit of feeding their young and then leaving them alone for many hours.
But wild rabbit babies, if separated from their burrow and mother too young, will have little chance of survival.
That said, if you have already adopted the rabbit at home, my first advice is to bring it back to the mother’s burrow – the sooner you do it, the better for him. The mother, in fact, smelling the human scent, may no longer accept her baby.
If the burrow is destroyed, you have two options. Either rebuild it exactly where it was with what you find around it. Or you can rebuild it a few meters from the previous point, making sure that this time the place is safe.
If you realize that the mother has not returned to the burrow after a few days, perhaps because she has lost her way, I suggest you contact a veterinarian. You can then find out about the care and accommodation services for wild animals in your area. Often these are associations or volunteer activities used to manage these situations and whose volunteer staff is very competent.
What predators do rabbits eat?
If you have come across this article, it is surely because you have stumbled upon a little one and wondered what you can do to help. And the first thing that comes naturally to mind is what other animals could harm it.
Well, then you will be interested to know that unfortunately rabbits exist on all continents except Antarctica. This is because their main function in every ecosystem is to reproduce to feed the numerous species of predators all over the world.
Almost every predator will eat a rabbit if it manages to catch one. Wolves, foxes, coyotes, eagles, hawks, owls, lynx, bobcats, lions, cheetahs, leopards, weasels, stoats, and ferrets are among the many predators that hunt and eat rabbits.
What are the rabbit's survival methods?
However, the fact that they are prey does not necessarily make rabbits in danger, as they know how to defend themselves. Running, dodging, and hiding are important survival mechanisms for both wild and domestic rabbits.
To protect their young, rabbits will stay away from a nest full of babies. They also have long ears to hear better and their eyes are located on opposite sides of the head for a wide field of vision. If you think about it, this is the opposite of having eyes on the front of the face, like us humans, which is a clue that you are a predator and the rabbit is not.
Finally, caution is part of rabbits’ genetic code. Your bunny will run and hide in the blink of an eye if it feels threatened by a loud noise or sudden movement.