Teleidoscope

Wed, May 30, 2007

Bunnies and the Truck

Posted at 7:00 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

I am convinced that wild bunnies think they get points for running in front of cars. There are a huge number of wild rabbits in my neighborhood and they obviously have a league organized.

When they are sitting by the side of the road in a perfectly safe place, they sit and wait and watch a car coming closer and closer and closer. Then when the car is very close... ZOOM, one or more rabbits will run across the road in front of the car.

It has to be a sport: sometimes they run from opposite directions.

An alternative mode is to race the car, running ahead of it for a little way before they dodge across. It seems to be the smaller bunnies that use the racing style. Maybe they are trying to get up their nerve for the crossing?

The rabbits in my yard like the truck when it is not moving, too. Sometimes I come home from shopping, haul everything into the house, and by the time I look out a window, there are already rabbits under the truck, sitting there and looking around, or sprawled out so they are twice as long as usual. I assume they like it because it has a high clearance so they can see a long way while being protected from hawks and the larger dogs. And of course, the clay and gravel under the truck stays dry when it rains, and doesn't heat up much on hot sunny days because the truck provides shade. On cold days the bunnies stay near edges of the truck where the sun can reach them.

I wonder if the rabbits think my truck is friendly toward them, because it protects them and is careful not to squash them? Maybe they don't realize how dangerous the running-across game really is.

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