The Easter Bunny’s a rabbit, but what kind of rabbit? There are over 20 species of rabbit, and they have a few dozen more cousins, the hares and pikas. Maybe different regions have different “Easter Bunnies,” with snowshoe hares bopping along with frozen chocolate eggs in Arctic North America and desert cottontails keeping their sugary snacks cool in burrows in the desert Southwest.
(Image: Gerbil/Wikipedia)
This graphic from Climate Nexus points out that at least five Easter Bunny candidates are threatened with extinction because of climate change.
- The Mexican volcano rabbit (seriously! a volcano rabbit!)
- The Florida Keys marsh rabbit
- The snowshoe hare
- The pygmy rabbit
- The American pika
Each of these species is threatened by different factors: increasing temperatures, rising sea level, changing weather patterns, etc. This lagomorph mass extinction could have devastating effects on this important holiday of fertility and sweets!
(Pygmy rabbit, Image: BLM/Wikipedia)
Won’t somebody think of the children, and save the Easter Bunny?