After pausing to take a photo of a flower along the trail, I looked up to see a doe standing directly in the path in front of me.... Later on, while sitting to take in a quiet moment, I watched as a rabbit popped out of the bush onto the trail, ears twitching. The two of us stayed there together for a minute, maybe two. Then she ran off a second before I heard the dog coming toward us. It wasn’t safe for a rabbit with a potential predator close by....
I see rabbits all the time, in our yard and along the nearby woodland trails, and the rabbits are always the same. They freeze at first, and then they suddenly bolt. It doesn't take a dog to trigger the shift from frozen to hopping the hell out of there. The rabbit has 2 modes. The column writer interprets it her way, flattering herself by imagining the rabbit is communing with her, followed by fear of the dog. But I think I've seen far more rabbits than the author. That doesn't make my reading of the rabbit's mind perfect. But I'm thinking that the rabbit isn't thinking anything at all, but is programmed by evolution to alternate between 2 strategies: 1. Look invisible, 2. Become invisible. That is: 1. Freeze, 2. Run. The rabbit does the same thing every time.
And, by the way, no matter how gently you may move through the woods and how fondly you may regard bunnies, when you, the human being, are around, for the rabbit, there is "a potential predator close by."
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Even in much more complex animals, like human beings, there are only three limbic responses: fight, flight, freeze. And rabbits don't do much if any fighting with to them gigantic beasts. And even in human beings the limbic system short circuits the kind of higher thoughts that rabbits don't even possess.
It's weird to try to empathize with rabbits and not to try to imagine encountering a giant and the resulting flight or freeze response *we* would have.
Although I like you encounter rabbits all the time (I guess 200 times a year) so of course it is obvious that rabbits always do exactly the same two things every time.
That looks delicious!
You can deep fry anything, apparently. There's a guy out in California who is the deep fry king. One day he deep fried an oreo. And now fried oreo is a fun dessert you can find in the deep, deep South. I think it's actually the best dessert I've ever had. Sounds horrible, yes? Delicious.
Rabbit is tasty. Had it once in Poland. Too many bones. Pain in the ass to each.
Rabbit = Kamala Harris
Narrator Who Spots Rabbit = Media
Dogs Who Scare Rabbit Away = Mendacious MAGA Mutts
"It wasn’t safe for a rabbit with a potential predator close by ...." Typical lib.
Safety is one of the highest lib values; even for dumb animals.
Rabbit is common in German grocery store meat counters. Tried it once and wasn't impressed.
I'm told that 200 years ago, on the frontier, you would have been hard pressed to guess which would become the staple meat source for the future, chicken or rabbit.
You can buy a skinned frozen rabbit in my local supermarket. Expensive though, 12.99 a pound. I spiced it up and grilled it; pretty good, but many small bones--hard to get at a lot of meat.
Like chicken, they need 50 years of scientific breeding to develop a 30 pound rabbit that is 75% chest and leg meat.
I'm back from Belgium, where I spotted a rabbit or hare in the yard at Ferme de Hougomont (IYKYK) just below our bedroom window. I took a pic through the glass, but when I opened the window for a better shot it bolted back to the burrow.
They are skittish creatures.
IIUC, the Scots deepfry candy bars.
"is programmed by evolution to alternate between 2 strategies: 1. Look invisible, 2. Become invisible. That is: 1. Freeze, 2. Run. The rabbit does the same thing every time."
Exactly. We walk our dog(s) on the leash in our neighborhood daily. Sometimes twice a day. We don't see rabbits all the time, but when we do they freeze at first and then they run. Sometimes they only run a few feet and they stop where they are fully visible.
1. Freeze, 2. Run. The rabbit does the same thing every time.
Nope. Wrong. Bad science. Not enough observations. Rabbits and most other animals are programmed to:
1. Fight
2. Flight
3. Also starts with F, I'll leave it to your imagination.
You may never have seen rabbits fight, but they do it ALL the time. They do not always run. Here's a good video of a rabbit choosing to stand its ground and fight.
https://youtu.be/niPTEPyJk5c?t=36
They look ridiculous fighting. But they sometimes don't just run.
Fried Bunny Boogie!
h/t Bob Hite
There's nothing that hasn't been deep fried in the South. Including ice cream.
Had rabbit in Korea, didn't like it. Have had pigeon (raised as food, not captured on the street, or so they told me) in the Philippines. It was good.
Every summer, I have a rabbit (different one I believe) hang out with me while I read on my patio. They lay in the shade, and sprawl out very comfortably. Of course, in New Jersey, the houses are close together, and most of my neighbors have dogs or kids playing in their backyards. I guess mine is their safe place!!
I suppose a cornered rabbit with no other choice might try to fight a larger predator, but that's not going to be their first choice.
But here is a video of a rabbit fighting a snake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRYreIlKzWs
and a rabbit fighting off a hawk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppRQBdRS21E
Rabbits are used to me scything the yard. me mostly not moving very fast for an hour at a time, and they remain eating clover unless they're right in the scythe path eventually. Alongside doesn't count.
Wild rabbits even raised from eyes closed by hand remain wild, though. They don't seek you out. Unlike wild birds, which imprint on you and hang around long after they're released.
Grandpa ate rabbits. It does not taste good. Too lean and tough
Leave the mutts at home. Oh, wait, I guess the whole purpose of going outdoors is to let them run and shit all over the place, amirite? Not a fan.
I believe the Scottish snack is specifically a batter-fried Mars bar.
I had a bunny that was trapped in a basement window well. I tried various ways through the partially open window boost it out before stacking boxes in an impromptu stairway worked to liberate the wild beast.
While trapped, at one point the flight instinct stopped and fight kicked in. The leporidae viciously lunged at me with "arms" and legs spread wide. It had an angry, malevolent face like in Watership Down.
Thankful the window was only open a crack and it bounced off. Now I know how Jimmy Carter felt! I should live to be 100?
The rabbits in my yard have been absolutely voracious this year, eating absolutely everything -- even hostas! Every single neighbor tells the same story. We long for the neighborhood fox, but have heard whispers that the Golf Course People relocated it because the fox was digging up the greens. (I've no idea if that's true, so I'm posted without evidence, but the foxes in the neighborhood are gone for some reason.)
Rabbits are vermin. Anything that kills them is a-ok in my book.
I had rabbit in a restaurant in Leipzig, and found it gristly. The same meal included the best batter-fried calamari I have ever had, so I'm guessing it was the meat, not the preparation, that was at fault.
Everything I know about rabbits I learned from Watership Down. (Or Watereddown Shit as somebody called it.)
Yes, I recommend trying deep-fried ice cream. They use to serve it at the Texas State Fair, and maybe still do. Cowboy Kent Rollins is great.
"True story? I couldn't swear to ever detail but it's certainly true that it is a story."
They are eating the rabbits, they're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats.
I learned to hunt rabbits in my childhood: Walk the field but make frequent stops. Rabbits will freeze at the approach of danger, but will bolt if they think they've been spotted. Stopping for a minute or two in their vicinity makes them think they've been seen... and off they go.
I like rabbit/hare as a protein. Markets in France and Germany frequently have rabbit meat for sale. The sellers are required to leave at least one rabbit's foot left unskinned so that consumers can verify it is a rabbit and not, perhaps, a cat or a dog.
I had a wonderful meal of rabbit in a mushroom cream sauce served over spaetzele at a restaurant near Strassbourg in France. We had a bottle of Trimbacher Pinot Gris with it. That was 40 years ago and I remember it like yesterday.
Speaking of yesterday, I just bought a new deep fryer and I've been contemplating what to cook up first. I was considering onion bhajias, but that fried bunny looks mighty tempting.
MfG
Goetz von Berlichingen
I've had rabbit; not too bad, a little greasy and gamey.
One of my first memories was on a Midwestern Saturday cool autumn morning, toddling over to a neighbor's yard to see what our Baptist preacher neighbor was up to. He was sitting on a stool, with a bucket in front of him. When I got close, I saw he had a large knife in his hand and was skinning rabbits he had hunted that morning.
It made an impression on this 5 year-old.
You know the birds are shitting everywhere all the time, right? The chickadees leave little drops of poop everywhere, if you don't have chickadees, you probably have sparrows doing the same thing.
I remove comments that just say "Test." Please don't do that. If you need to test your ability to comment, you have to submit a real comment. Don't subject us all to reading "Test." It won't even work as a test, because I will remove it.
Ate rabbit and squirrel during survival school in the 80s, preferred the squirrel.
Cloistered liberals thinking "Bambi" was a documentary aren't a new thing.
Althouse writes, "The column writer interprets it her way, flattering herself by imagining the rabbit is communing with her, followed by fear of the dog."
This insight is so obviously true and the logical fallacy underlying Danovich's opinion is so conspicuous and widely understood by anyone with any acquaintance with the art of rhetoric, that the import goes far beyond the article itself to the editorial policies of the Washington Post. Are the the editors of the WaPo opinion page completely unschooled in the craft they are so well-paid to perform that they cannot sort shit from shinola? There are worthy opinions and unworthy opinions. Most people harbor both. The first job of an opinion editor is to discriminate between worthy opinions that spark honest and illuminating debate and mental effluence that only cheapens and pollutes. What next? Will the Post be publishing flat-Earth fables beside the careful musings of theoretical physicists? Will the financial page feature investment advice from dowsers and astrologers?
+1
We had cats & dogs for 25 years, and a month after the last one passed, we had two Gray Foxes cavorting in our backyard. They've been frequent visitors for over a year now, along with Opossums, Raccoons and Armadillos. All it took was removal of the domesticted predators from the territory of our yard. Only problem is we can't pet the new Critters.
What kind of deep fryer did you buy? I just recently found a source for beef tallow, and am thinking about making some proper fish and chips.
I never had rabbit that wasn't delicious, but then I have never eaten wild rabbit.
Wabbits are skittish by nature. Always on the alert for Elmer Fudd or Tampon Tim.
“Nope. Wrong. Bad science. Not enough observations. Rabbits and most other animals are programmed to:
“1. Fight
“2. Flight
“3. Also starts with F, I'll leave it to your imagination.”
My partner and her ex have a farm 5 miles west of us in NW MT. About 1/3 section, mostly in hay and alfalfa. For Easter, she bought each of the 4 kids a rabbit. Supposed to be all males. Nope. He’s sitting on the porch with his father, watching the hay and alfalfa grow, and all of a sudden yells for her to get the kids inside. They then get their rifles, and go to work. They ultimately counted over 100 of the little buggers.
Similarly, my father owned a 410 shotgun. Why? Growing up, he would spend time in the summers at his father’s family’s farm in the OK Panhandle. He had it to shoot the ubiquitous rabbits, when he was down there. It was a running war, and being squeamish was no way to survive.
All animals, and here, esp, all mammal species, have engaged in trade offs - in this case, reproduction v. longevity, esp in terms of genetic repair. This is why tests on mice and rats are often misleading in therms of how substances affect humans, since their species devote more resources to reproduction than to genetic repair, raising young, and the like. Small prey animals, like rabbits, mice, etc, breed like crazy, because attrition, mostly through predation, is so high. They live short lives, and breed as often as they can. Quantity over quality. Just the opposite of elephants, and humans. Quality over quantity.
I guess, now that I think about it, every time I have had rabbit, it has been in a decent French restaurant.
Ever watch the rabbit hunting scene in the movie The Rules of the Game? It's a great movie, maybe it's on Criterion.
Everything I learned about rabbits I learned from Looney Tunes, including how to spell wabbit.
Mmm, rabbi.
Fornicate... and then will come baby... babies... diversity.
Something I learned this last year is that rabbits don’t have stereoscopic vision. That’s because their eyes are around on the sides of their heads. What they have instead is a roughly 300° or so horizontal visual field, plus most of 180° vertical visual field. But they have zero depth perception. They live in a 2D world, while we live in a 3D world. Possibly making it worse, their vision is bichromatic, while most of ours is trichromatic. They literally cannot see and recognize anything visually, unless or until it moves.
Possibly because of their extremely large visual field (~300° horizontally and ~180° vertically), a comparatively large portion of their brains are dedicated to processing visual stimuli. But the two sides of their brains are not really integrated. One side processes visual stimuli from one eye, and the other side processes it from the other eye. But the two sides don’t communicate. Which is part of why they don’t have stereoscopic vision. It’s like there’s one 2D black and white movie playing on one side of their brains, and a completely different one playing on the other, as contrasted to the 3D color movie we see, through integrating vision from both our eyes.
Dixcus writes "1. Fight 2. Flight 3. Also starts with F, I'll leave it to your imagination."
Wrong order. As an apprentice falconer I witnessed literally hundreds of "predator/prey interactions" as the clerisy put it -- bunny bopping to us. A speedy zigzag dash for cover is the cottontail rabbit's first reaction to the approach of a raptor and it is usually successful.
The law requires falconers to keep a detailed field log -- what game was flown at, when, where, weather, and other minutiae. I still have those notebooks, and my rough statistics come to one kill out of six attempts. This seems to be better than the odds in nature, which may account for the partnership at the heart of falconry. Birds of prey generally do not enjoy the cooperation of one or more humans plus a an occasional pointer. Among the kills I witnessed I never saw any behavior that was unequivocally a fight. Caught bunnies often struggled against the griping talons, but was that fighting? It didn't look like fighting to me. Red-tailed buzzards are known to kill rattlesnakes, animals that have very limited ability to flee but fight very effectively. Red-tails seem to know the danger, consequently their attack is very different than the attack on something much more able to flee than counter-attack.
Sometimes there was that uncanny "baby scream", but typical not. Sometimes the prey could seen flexing its jaws as if to bite the rator, however whether those occurrences were offers to fight or gasping responses to pierced and crushed lungs I couldn't say. What one sees and how one interprets what one sees are often very different.
"Pets or meat"
John Henry
One of my professors in seminary grew up very poor in the hills of Missouri. He once told the story of setting traps to catch rabbits, and one winter day in December he checked his traps and had not one but two rabbits. That meant good eating for him and his family.
I grew up in an affluent family, it's hard to imagine needing to catch rabbits in order to eat well. I've never eaten rabbit, heard it doesn't taste bad but it's not good either.
Frolicking through the woods.... and then diversity.
That's an amusing post. Perhaps in Portland and surrounds rabbits, like sane people, are an endangered group. I recently left the Sonoran Desert where rabbits abound and sane people are holding on.
Thank you, Bruce Hayden. The 180° vertical field of 2D vision explains how cottontails so easily detect airborne threats.
Off-leash dogs are a constant worry. Owners of off-leash dogs have little consideration for their fellow humans, nor for other dogs. Our neighbor and his dog were mauled this summer by off-leash dog; dog required multiple stitches at ER vet, human had multiple black bruises and two black eyes. Fortunately our little city's police department issued a police report and ticket to attack-dog, but saw same aggressive dog off-leash and roaming neighborhood days later.
Here in the west side if Las Vegas there are plenty of bunny rabbits running around. Enough to keep the coyotes well fed.
Tim, I bought this one:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMQLXKSN?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
The most important aspect for me was that it has an 1800w heating coil so temperature recovery should be fast. Recovery (i.e. the time it takes to return to the proper heating temperature) is important because, if the oil temp is too low the food will absorb the oil and become greasy and soggy. I also look for decent capacity for the same reason - 3Ls of hot oil cools down less than 1L of hot oil. I also looked for all stainless because plastic and hot oil don't get along.
I haven't used this one yet.
Bought a couple of pounds of baby octopus last week that I fried up like calamari. They were ruined because Ol' Sparky didn't have the oomph to get and stay hot anymore. Very sad. I had a fresh Caprese salad (tomatoes and basil from our garden) and a bottle of Bokisch Albarino to go with it. Would've been a lovely meal.
Never again!
Frau vB wants beer-battered onion rings to go with our Salisbury steak in mushroom gravy for dinner tonight. So, thank God she took the burden of deciding what to make first with the new fryer off my shoulders.
MfG
Goetz von Berlichingen
But I think I've seen far more rabbits than the author.
I recall driving on a road near Fairbanks in winter, darn if it didn't look like the road was paved with flattened rabbits. No doubt they were surprised while communing with the aurora.
There is a marked difference in quality between market-raised and wild rabbit/hare meat, just as there is with other meats (pork, turkey). Market rabbits will be harvested just as they reach maturity and the meat will be tender as a result. Wild lagomorphs might be old and tough. Their meat will be gamey and stringy; best left to the stewpot.
Don't even bother with jackrabbits.
I hear jackalopes are pretty tasty, though.
MfG
Goetz von Berlichingen
Doe, a deer, a female deer.
When I walk the dogs in the morning, I walk them around the full perimeter of the yard to get their scent out, marking the territory. I do this, because the two dog sisters have two cat sisters, which are let out to roam all day. This is protecting the cats from the coyotes and bobcats, who usually won't venture into a yard with the fresh scent of dogs around, at least during the day. And the cats seem to understand this, because they don't venture far outside the yard, and they come in at night.
When it comes to the owls though, they're on their own.
Well, you could try...might not have a full complement of fingers after, though.
Armadillos, now, they're something else. Long ago, in a beer-fueled bull session the question arose, what is the limit of the armadillo's northern range? to which a friend responded, the median on I-40. Because apparently armadillos have only two danger responses: 1. hunker down 2. Jump straight in the air. So the prevalence of corpse armadillos on I-40 is a function of a stream of them essaying a night crossing, observing oncoming headlights, hunkering down, and muttering softly, "oh pleasepleasepleaseplease PLEASE let it be two motorcycles..."
The same for cows, sheep, horses - they all have ~300° vision, triggered to identifying motion..
Now, if you happen to be walking in a field with some of these, and they start to get a little skittish, try turning your head to the side. All of these animals identify predators at some level because they can see two eyes - the main feature of predator species, binocular vision to gauge depth, direction, and speed of prey. When an herbivore can only see one of your eyes, they're not sure you're a predator, and it settles them some.
Current AI could replace astrologers and no one would notice.
"Watership Down" was based on a non-fiction book titled "The Private life of the Rabbit. I took my kids to see the real Watership Down when they were teens.
Australia is over run with them from one guy bringing in a pair years ago.
what set off rabbit that attacked Jimmy Carter?
I usually walk at night around my neighborhood. One lap is a mile and on any individual lap I typically see 4-6 rabbits. They will typically freeze, but if I get too close they will hop away about 20-30 feet then freeze again. If they happen to hop away in the same direction I am walking they will again hop away when I get too close, and then freeze in their new location. This can some times repeat several times with any encounter of an individual rabbit.
A few nights ago I saw an animal padding across the street. I wondered if it was a dog off leash, but as I got closer I realized it was a coyote. The coyote was very submissive and sat on it's haunches on the other side of the street as I walked by. I also realized that I hadn't seen any rabbits during my walk at that point and I had already done several laps. So maybe rabbits do make a distinctions between animals and humans come off less dangerous to them than coyotes, which I'm assuming would very much enjoy a meal of rabbit.
rabbits would high 5 scott adams then!
Hasenpfeffer is excellent but I don't quite understand why we are chasing bunnies down the rabbit hole.
And, by the way, no matter how gently you may move through the woods and how fondly you may regard bunnies, when you, the human being, are around, for the rabbit, there is "a potential predator close by."
Well said
Testy!
Which is part of why I carry pepper spray (bear spray in MT), and, yes, a gun or two, when walking our dog. And, yes, the pack of coyotes. In the subdivision, the coyotes aren’t really an issue. Or at least not before midnight. But the off-leash dogs are, esp right after everyone gets home from work.
Interestingly to me, we have both cottontail and Jack rabbits here in PHX. There is a barbed wire fence between the subdivision and a large open space (where the coyotes live). Cottontail live inside the fence, and Jack rabbits outside it. It doesn’t slow anything down, except for horses and humans. Both types of rabbits, as well as both types of canines don’t even slow down for it. Yet, you don’t see cottontails outside the fence, or Jack rabbits within.
What’s. Funny to me is that our small (~20 lb) dog has no interest in the cottontail, but in MT goes crazy trying to chase the deer. Amazingly, she charges, and they flee, despite them being 3x or more her size. She put to flight a decent sized javelina late one night, that could have quickly killed her with his tusks. Predictor and prey. And, no, she’s never off her leash outdoors. When she’s chasing prey, she’ll hit the end of her leash, and go vertical. Then I sometimes apologize, remarking that either species would quickly end her life if she got close, and we love having her around.
A Baptist preacher, a Catholic priest, and a rabbit go to donate blood, and are asked their bloodtypes.
"A" says the preacher. "B" says the priest. "I think I'm a typo," says the rabbit.
Rabbit is available through the Navy Supply System. One of the ships I was on served it as a main course. Once. Crew's reaction was less then welcoming.
One day long ago a neighbor's beagle got on the trail of a running rabbit, and for about 15 minutes he was baying and chasing the rabbit around. Suddenly the rabbit appeared in my yard and ran under my feet and stopped while the beagle hunted around for where the hell the rabbit was. I was squatting and by by Doberman Susie. The rabbit was not spooked by me moving, just wanted to avoid the beagle, and a large non-beagle was a good place to hide.
See also the Lotka–Volterra equation.
Vicki Hearne's _Adam's Task_ is a good first book on animal consciousness, taking the animal as a moral creature doing what makes him feel right. Also an excellent example of a woman writing something useful by way of small corrections to what men have written.
A challenge long ago to write the world's most obscure joke came up with this one:
A priest, a minister and a rabbi were walking down the street and noticed a drunk lying in the gutter. The priest and the minister pretended not to notice and passed by, but the rabbi stopped to see if he could help her.
The rabbi caught up with the priest and the minister later, and remarked, "They don't make drunks like they used to."
We have a 10 year old pet rabbit. He lives inside and until he became incontinent, had free access to the first floor. His partner bunny died last December. They definitely have personalities like dogs and cats. But with limited vocalization abilities and non-expressive eyes, it is not immediately apparent.
I admit I don't get it
straighten up
As I understand it, the "freeze" response is not hiding.
The "freeze" is the prey animal noticing the predator, and then making it clear to the predator that, yes, I can see you. Sure, you can go chase me, but the element of surprise is gone and I will have a huge head start. You get any closer, and I'm running. If you pursue you might catch me, but you probably won't, and do you really want to expend that much energy on such low odds? It's not really worth it, is it?
The strategy works pretty well, which is why prey pursue it. The problem is when they try to use it in inappropriate situations. Deer in the headlights is the best known version of this strategy backfiring. By the time the car gets into "I'm going to bolt" range, it is already too late.
I assume every word, every action is designed to lower the quality and span of the American life.
"[R]uined because Ol' Sparky didn't have the oomph to get and stay hot anymore."
Sure hate to hear it.
Explain this: Once, while on a walk in So. Jersey, my lovely wife and I encountered a rabbit by the side of the road. I stopped and greeted him. I approached him, slowly. I bent down, crouched down, slowly reached out and gently touched his ear, after which,he hopped away! Lifelong dream fulfilled!
Giant Hares are delicious, but only the dog catches and eats them. I envy him.
They really like Pink Floyd.
I remember that one, JH.
I read somewhere that biologists speculate that the white tails of bunnies (and whitetail deer) are an evolutionary adaptation which confuses predators during the zigzag escape run--the predator focuses on the white spot rather than where the prey is actually going, allowing the prey to escape by switching direction. Makes sense--why else would they have white tails?
We had a momma bunny dig a burrow and have babies right in the middle of the perennial border in our backyard. Everyone knew about them except our Springer Spaniel, who is kind of an airhead of the dog species (but a sweetheart).
One day I was working in the yard and I heard her woofing. I went to check and she was proudly proclaiming that she had found the bunnies nest. Amazingly, she had picked up one of the baby bunnies and carried it about 50 feet away to the center of the yard (where she prefers to sit, and to carry things like gloves, tools and socks that she picks up). That baby bunny was alive and (apparently) unharmed. I checked the nest and there were 4 more baby bunnies; one was dead (apparently from fright) but the rest were Ok. I covered the nest with a large clay pot and took the dog back inside.
The next day it was all gone. I presume that either momma came back and took them all away, or some predator got them.
If we relied on overbred Springer Spaniels, we'd be overrun like Australia.
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