When the weather’s cool enough to not run the a/c all day (read: below 90 or so), Noe’s been spending long days napping on the porch.
I guess the concrete stays cool enough that she’s comfortable, the little furry weirdo.
Unfortunately, we will sometimes interrupt her slumber when we do some cleaning.
Some recent links:
First, can the insanely popular Angry Birds game get people into birding? The folks at 10,000 Birds point out some real-life angry birds:
First is a small bird that is almost universally described as cute. This might explain its anger. Or perhaps it is angry because it is called a Bushtit. And, no, I am not kidding about the name. If you were referred to as “Bushtit” wouldn’t you be angry too?
Just yesterday, I watched a pair of Northern Mockingbirds repeatedly dive-bomb a Red-Shouldered Hawk, who was trying to hide in a tree in our apartment complex. Yes, there are dramatic examples of angry birds out there. Here’s a Cooper’s Hawk who’s apparently unable to comprehend that this is not a real owl in its territory (via):
Next, Daren Naish takes a look at lagomorph evolution- the family that includes rabbits- in light of a recent discovery of a giant fossil lagomorph on the island of Minorca. Here’s an artist’s depiction of the species, Nuralagus rex. Note the European Rabbit for comparison:
In his post (“You have your giant fossil rabbit neck all wrong“- and that is an awesome title!), he discusses the lack of study that’s been done on lagomorph phyolgeny, as well as addressing the title of his post. Check out his discussion if you’re interested in lagomorph evolution (and not just adorable bunny antics).
Some photos just capture the essence of Noe perfectly.
Case in point:
Here, we see Noe waiting at the edge of the kitchen for noms while vegetables are being chopped for dinner. Her posture is relaxed, but alert. Note also that her front half lies on the cool surface of the linoleum, while her rear paws have traction on the carpet in case she needs to leap up and move quickly.
And yes, her patience was eventually rewarded with a yummy piece of kale.
The nose is probably the hardest bunny part to properly depict using photos. In real life, it’s always twitching: sniffing, filtering, and sorting out scents.
Note the furry lips and crinkled whiskers. The latter are characteristic to her breed. Also, there’s a little brown spot on her right lip- that’s a biopsy scar from a particularly long-lived skin infection she had a few years ago.
Noe lets us touch her nose, though if we pet her on it she angles her head as if to say, “This is the proper position for forehead rubs, silly humans.”
The hunter seeks his prey.
Cautiously, he moves through the darkened forest. He knows his prey’s habits: the places she rests, her watering hole, the forest glades in which the succulent herbs that she favors grow. It is only a matter of time before he finds her.
Soon, he begins to see signs of her presence: a single dropping, a tuft of fur, toothmarks upon a branch. The marks are fresh.
He creeps around a corner.
There! She dozes, secure in her lair, confident that she is safe. …Foolishly confident.
Stealthily, he slowly moves toward her. It would not do for his prey to bolt.
The beast is dreaming- paws and lips twitching. Does she dream of sinking her teeth into a large carrot, juices dripping down her chin? Or perhaps of munching on some peppery arugula, its scent flavoring her breath? He does not know. While her eyes are open, he knows they see only the dream-vegetable feast before her.
The hunter creeps closer. If he can only reach out and…
A sharp <crack>! He clumsily steps upon a twig. The sound pierces the dim quiet.
The beast hears! She is instantly alert.
The hunter’s stealth has been in vain!
Now the chase will begin. His legs gathered beneath him, he prepares to leap. Which way will she run? He can only follow, as her instincts lead him on a mad chase for survival.
Ears taut with fear, the prey leaps up…
… and goes back to sleep.
The hunter sighs. There is no sport in this.
He puts the camera down.
Now it is time for forehead rubs.
(photos by Y. Fernandez)
Whenever we get back from a long trip, Noe needs major hair removal service.
The thing about rabbits is that they shed their entire coat twice a year- not all at once, but over the course of a few weeks. If you don’t brush them to help remove the loose fur, they can eat it when they groom and have digestive problems. This becomes an issue for Noe, because she refuses to be touched with a brush. So, we have to pet her and sort of gently tug out the loose tufts of fur manually.
She does not really care for this either.
Can this really be a comfortable way to nap?
Apparently so.
Today in the life of bunny: behavior #9- warning the humans of danger.
The things Noe does to warn us of danger are really pretty similar to the things she does to get our attention. I’m not sure if other people would divide this up the same way. But it sure seems like there are times when she is displaying general alarm, rather than trying to get us to do something for her.
Danger for rabbits means something different than danger to humans. But of course Noe doesn’t know that. The major “danger warning” Noe gives is the thump. Noe usually gives us a “danger thump” when she either hears a strange noise or sees a new object on the floor- for example, a box, suitcase, or the dreaded vacuum cleaner. In the case of a new scary object, we’ll often have to walk up to it as she watches and move it, otherwise she’ll keep up the thumping and staring for quite a while- this usually works to calm her down, but she’ll often have to investigate it herself.
The rabbit in this video seems to be thumping because he’s being videotaped. Noe seems to have no such aversion to the camera:
When Noe does it, we call this a “danger thump,” rather than a more lighthearted “look at me” thump because of her posture, and because she’ll often make the thump for loud noises after dashing into the room that one of us is in. It seems to be her way of saying “Did you hear that?”
Granted, this all might be more or less self-serving, but wild European rabbits do live in large social groups, and warning each other of danger is probably a good survival instinct. It’s less helpful in a domesticated setting, where the scary threat is an out-of-place laundry basket. Rabbits are not so fond of change.
We’re nearing the home stretch with this post in the bunny behavior series. Today, a somewhat more complex behavior I like to title “Getting the Humans’ Attention.”
You’ll note that the next behavior also falls under the area of bunny-human interaction, but I’m distinguishing between the two because “getting attention” seems pretty much to be “Noe tries to get what she wants,” rather than “Noe warns her fellow mammals about danger in a somewhat-altruistic manner.” But we’ll get to that next time…
Like many pets, Now seems to have three main “pay attention to meee!” behaviors: when she wants food, when she wants petting, and when she just wants to interact with us. Unfortunately, a lot of her attention-getting behavior is done by gnawing on something, ripping something up, or just going somewhere she’s not supposed to. If she could vocalize more, her attention-getting would probably cause less property damage.
Another way she makes noise is by thumping. The thump is sort of the all-purpose rabbit action- she thumps when she’s startled, when she’s happy, or when she’s planning some mischief. She apparently gets bunny bonus points by combining a thump with another attention-getting behavior, like jumping on us to wake us up.
If noise doesn’t work, there’s the direct approach. When we’re sitting in herspot, or are just not looking at her, she’ll often come up to us and either bop us with her nose or paw at us. Occasionally, she’ll nip. If she wants petting, she’ll come up and put her head under a hand or foot. This usually has the desired result:
Apparently, the last few habits are dominant rabbit behaviors– wild European rabbits live in large groups that have hierarchies, and house rabbits relate to humans in the same way. Noe’s occasionally bad attitude is a result of thinking she’s the alpha bunny.
…I wonder if there’s a market out there for a rabbit whisperer?
Continuing down the list, bunny behavior number 7 is digging:
Digging is a natural- and important- behavior in European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), the rabbit species our domestic bunnies are part of (there are actually 19 rabbit species!). This species lives in groups in elaborate tunnel warrens in the wild.
House rabbits who don’t have access to the outdoors still have the instinct to dig. For Noe, this means either digging madly at the newspaper in a corner of her cage, digging her way under our blankets, or clawing her way through a pillowcase so she can squeeze between it and the pillow. We strongly try to discourage that last behavior!
This video shows some serious bunny digging action (has sound):
I have to say that someone who would let their rabbit do this to their lawn is a really dedicated pet owner.