Doesn’t come much more pointless and mundane than this, but I thought I’d mention it anyway. This is not a Watership Down thread.
It seems to be the case that there is an established wild-living population of black-coloured rabbits near to where I live - I have observed a single black rabbit sitting on a roadside verge in three sets (that is one black rabbit at a time, but sighted repeatedly over the course of a month or two) of instances, all within half a mile of each other.
There has been about a 4 year gap in between each of these sets of sightings, so it’s a fairly safe bet that it isn’t the same individual across the space of nine years or so.
I suppose it’s possible that I have merely observed three individual domestic escapees, but I don’t think so; I’m assuming they are descended from a domestic escapee, but it’s interesting; white rabbits would fall easy prey to foxes and other predators, but these black individuals were all sighted in proximity to dense vegetation. I think they’re able to blend into the shadows and thus escape being selected out of the gene pool.
No, I’m near Southampton, England; It’s unlikely your rabbit is part of this particular picture, unless their success in breeding has radically outstripped my provisional estimation.
Black rabbits are, apparently, fairly common. In the old days gamekeepers liked to have a black rabbit in a warren they were responsible for because, if it disappeared, there was a good chance that there were poachers about.
I have seen several black or very dark bunnies here (see location). They are definitely wild, I’ve always seen them hanging out with the normal coloured rabbits and they look lean and fit, not like the big flopsy-wopsy bunnies in the pet shop.
