Rabbit Strategies

Yesterday, I spotted a dragonfly on the barbed wire fence that separates my land from the neighbors'.

Later in the day, all the hay in the field on the other side of the fence was mown and in bails.

I don't know whether this activity was disturbing to local rabbits, but it just so happened that yesterday evening, after putting Bow to bed, I had a much closer encounter with rabbits than ever before.

As I was walking down my road in the direction of the woods, I encountered several rabbits, who scattered and ran. One little one ran to the north, and at least two others went south. There they stopped, and I could see them waiting to see what would happen next. I went to look at the smaller rabbit first. It was not full grown. I wanted so much to get a good picture of it, but it ran away as I got close.

I then turned back to the two rabbits who were still watching and waiting on the other side of my internal road. I decided to approach them from the direction of the woods, so it would be harder for them to run for cover right away.

The first and closer rabbit ran off toward the woods almost at once. But the other one lingered. It waited for me to get a good look, then led me on a slower chase. Every once in a while the rabbit would pause and wait for me to catch up. Then as I approached, it would hop away again. It was leading me away from where the other rabbit had gone.

I don't know the relationship among the rabbits that I saw, but clearly their actions were coordinated and each rabbit had its own role to play.