Cottontail Bunnies Rescue By Wildlife Rehabilitator Mary Anna Cook-Babcock

COTTONTAIL BUNNIES

Cottontail bunnies are small, fragile and fluffy, and bring out the nurturing nature of humans. Unfortunately cottontail bunnies often die of stress from the good intentions of people who do not trust nature to provide adequate protection for these young animals. Injured or orphaned bunnies are usually harmed even more by people who try to care for them.

Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitators have the education, the equipment and the expertise to care for wildlife who need help. But the public MUST get the animal or bird to the Rehabilitator without delay in order for the animal or bird to have a chance. The public cannot wait until it is convenient or fits their social plans because the animal will die waiting.

The female creates a nest for her babies by making a shallow indentation in the ground called a scrape. She lines this scrape with dry grass and fur plucked from her chest. This creates a warm, dry, water-repellent, comfortable resting place for the babies. Mammal babies whose eyes are closed have no odor so predators cannot smell them. Predators can, however, watch the mother and follow her to the nest when she nurses her young. As the babies grow and develop they begin to wiggle in the nest and this movement also attracts some predators.

Baby bunnies are born naked but their skin is black or dark gray so the color is sometimes deceptive.
Even though they babies are naked they do have sparse, soft hairs on their bodies. Some bunnies have a white blaze on their heads but not all bunnies have this.

These nests are frequently constructed in the middle of a lawn, in the open, to the amazement of homeowners. Cottontails were accustomed to prairie life or forest life before the advent of man and the tall grasses, forest floor, and even beach plants protected the nest. They do not realize that the their habitat has changed and that humans consider short, mowed grass aesthetically pleasing. Nor do cottontails recognize pet dogs and cats as predators because they have no genetic memory of such animals. They recognize the scent of coyotes and foxes and bobcats and other native predators because they have all lived together for many hundreds of years.

When a nest of bunnies is discovered people wrongly think that, because humans have touched them, they must now be raised by rehabilitators. This is another old wives tale which must be dispelled over and over again. The mother rabbit will continue to feed and groom her litter of young despite the scent of human hands. She is no different from a human mother would welcome back a child who came home smelling like an animal den.

Cottontail females are the sole providers of the young. The males provide the genetic makeup and then go about their lives. Because rabbits are true herbivores they must forage almost constantly to have enough nourishment. They are induced ovulators so they mate shortly after giving birth to a litter. A female must eat enough to sustain herself, feed her babies, and nourish her gestating litter. This leaves her only enough time to nurse her bunnies once or twice a day. She does this at night and it only takes 3 to 5 minutes.

Cottontails are not physically able to move their young either with their mouths or with their feet so if an occupied nest is suddenly empty it has most likely be predated. The mom cannot find a nest of bunnies that has been moved. Moving the bunnies condemns them to a death of starvation, hypothermia, and predation.

To determine whether or not bunnies are orphaned place light twigs or thick grass over the nest in a tick-tack-toe pattern, overlapping the nest by several inches. Do not use dental floss, string, yarn or any other material in which the bunnies or their mom can become entangled. The sight of a strangled bunnie is not something anyone wants to encounter. If the pattern has been disturbed after the next two feeding times the bunnies are being fed by the mother. Another way is to feel the tummy of each bunny. If the tummy is slightly rounded, the mom is feeding. A bunny that is being fed has a tummy that feels like it swallowed a marshmallow. If the tummy is sunken or flat something has happened to mom and the bunnies need to be admitted to rehabilitation.

There was an old belief that in order to return bunnies to the nest a disguising scent had to be put on the bunnies. This was often a drop of vanilla. We now know that, unlike some domestic livestock, wildlife does not recognize the scent of humans as an incursion. Adding the scent of vanilla or any other unnatural scent does, however, attract predators to a nest of bunnies who have no scent of their own. If humans continue to return to the nest to handle and disturb the young their presence will also alert predators, including cats and dogs, to the presence of the helpless young rabbits.

Cottontail bunnies are difficult for rehabilitators to raise because they die easily of stress related disorders. Their digestive systems are very delicate and special formulas have been created for wildlife rehabilitators which increases the rate of survival.

It is important that the public not try to give anything to eat or drink to baby bunnies. Bunnies do not nurse the same way other mammals do so rehabilitators are trained in ways to prevent death from aspiration.

As with other wildlife, cat caught bunnies almost always die from the bacteria in the mouth of the cat. Since many of the bacterias found in cat saliva are also airborne bunnies can get pneumonia if a cat breaths on them. Even if there is no visible damage from the cat, their needle like teeth can often inject bacteria into the fragile skin of a bunny. Even mouthing the bunny can be fatal because the bacteria-laden saliva can be groomed off and ingested by the bunny.

Bunnies leave the nest and the care of their mothers when they are 2 – 4 weeks old. At this time their eyes are open, they are eating grass and, more importantly, they are eating weeds. Their ears are erect, they are fluffy, they can run. However their first line of defense is the same mechanism which protected them in the prairie or the forest – freezing. A frozen bunny sits perfectly still, can be approached and even picked up, because he thinks he cannot be seen. If he remains quiet in the hands of a human this is a sure indication that he is in shock and will die unless he is released. This does not mean that the bunny is content to be held and cuddled.
Bunnies are mature based on behavior not on weight or other physical characteristics. There is a white blaze on the head of some bunnies but not on others. The presence or absence of this blaze in only an indication that the blaze exists or not and has nothing to do with development.

Bunnies born in a lawn or garden will not remain there as adults. The young will disperse within 4 – 6 weeks. Only 10% of the bunnies born in the wild survive. Cottontails prefer weeds and native plants to garden vegetables so leaving a small “rabbit patch of weeds and other plants for them is sometimes the best way to protect ornamentals. Baby powder can protect flowers and plants as can several other commercial products. A screen placed over bulbs and covered with dirt will ensure spring flowers. Sometimes the best plant protection is fencing of various kinds covering the entire plant.

Best of all, when cottontails are allowed to thrive homeowners sometimes have the opportunity to observe the “rabbit dance”. This is the mating ritual during which male and female frolic on the lawn, jump over each other, and provide humans with awesome entertainment.

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Mary Anna Cook-Babcock
Naturalist
Wildlife Rehabilitation Consultant
Phoenix, AZ