Why are adolescent wild rabbits so docile?

About this time of year, I start seeing young, wild rabbits in the greenbelt around my house. The thing that strikes me as odd is that they are so docile. I can walk my dog within about 10 feet of them and they don’t run away. They are on alert, but they don’t seem too concerned. In a month or two I likely won’t see anymore until next year.

We also have coyotes in the area. I’m sure they get some of the rabbits, but not all of them since they’re back every year.

Are all young rabbits docile like this? Or am I just seeing the docile ones and all the wiley ones are wisely hiding somewhere? When I see the docile ones, I can’t help but think they won’t last long around the coyotes.

They are more likely to survive if they do not move. I walk my dogs right past still rabbits, but if they run, 50% of the time the dogs get them.

This may be part of the survival strategy of the species. If a number of rabbits are easy to catch the predators would have no reason to evolve better hunting skills. Rabbits produce a lot of babies. Maybe the purpose they serve is to simply spoil the predators and keep them from getting too good.

What where you expecting? That all rabbits were like the one from Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

They’re too young to know the dangers of a *rowf. *

They have their earbuds in and they just don’t hear you.

This, for the most part. Rabbit kittens freeze institutionally and try to rely on not being noticed by predators. The older they get and the better able to run, the more inclined they will be to make a break for it ( to a burrow of thick undergrowth ) if approached too closely.

That said rabbits like most critters can get habituated to non-threatening humans. They’re pretty much all gone now, but when I was a little kid brush rabbits were still common enough in Golden Gate Park and many were not much more skittish than the squirrels. You’d see mothers with babies happily grazing on the lawns as dozens of people walked or jogged past.

As suggested - in dogs (and, I suspect most predators), if you run, it means you are prey and triggers the prey instinct (kill and eat).
If they don’t catch wind of you until you are within range, their best bet is to freeze and hope you don’t see them.
The huge litters of rabbits is required - when you are on simply everybody’s menu, there had better be a bunch of you and you better make lots of babies.

I worry that I’m contributing to this. By walking my dog calmly past them, I worry that they won’t think of dogs and similar animals to be a threat. That’s not such a big deal in a park, but it seems like it can make them more vulnerable in an area with predators for whom the rabbits are a food source.

:mad:

I’m pretty sure I was trying to say instinctually. I blame…umm…the message board software…yeah…that’s the ticket…

We have one that loiters on our deck, eating bird seed and an apple slice or two we toss out for him. He’s very laid back, I think he’s a suburban rabbit too used to living near humans. Sort of like an outdoor pet, not that we can pet him.
\

I remember at St Martin’s Plain army camp there were large flocks of rabbits that lived under the huts (I think) and were very tame as the soldiers left them alone.

They also need to learn that there are idiot clueless dogs out there that won’t chase them. :stuck_out_tongue:

-Watership Down