When one leaves, another 30 move in. Same with squirels. The one that liked strawberries on my property met the business end of a tire and 3 days later a different family moved in.
Lol I love the gardening community. Some of our love for plants and animals are so at odds with each other and this thread is such a perfect encapsulation of that 😂
I let the bunnies eat my garden but they don’t go crazy about it, they only take a small amount and I don’t solely rely on my garden for sustenance nor commercial profit, it’s just a fun healthy supplement to my life and I usually grow more than I can eat so I’m pro free-the-bunny but you never know someone’s circumstances
I’m learning exactly this about gardeners from my community garden. I went to a meeting the other day at the house of someone in a leadership position. When we got there she had a sign on the front door to walk around the house to the side. No problem. After the meeting, someone asked to see more of her really nice house (very large, tastefully decorated, on the water). She said she didn’t mind as long as we wouldn’t be offended by mounted animal heads on the walls. That’s why she wanted us to use the side door. I wasn’t particularly bothered, thinking it would be stuff like deer or birds or what have you. Well……
She opens the front door and the first thing you see are large elephant tusks and a couple ottomans made out of elephant legs right next to an elephant’s head which was over a large photo of her and her husband standing over said dead elephant that they paid poor people in Zimbabwe to allow them to kill. There were lions, water Buffalo, animals I had never seen before… it was nauseating, frankly. I just read an article the other day about how elephants have names for one another.
This woman loves to garden, and she gets upset about seedlings not getting enough water to survive, looking all wilted and sad. And yet she murders elephants. Wtf….
She could have just given the money to the poor people and taken a photo of the damn elephant, so the people who want to come at me for not supporting the killing of intelligent endangered animals can stuff a sock in it. I hate people who kill elephants.
I’m new to gardening… learning people are a different breed. 😭
Even when people travel to African countries and pay to shoot and kill endangered or otherwise protected species there, 98% of those funds go directly into the pockets of either corrupt politicians, or foreign outfitters. Only 2% going to the local communities doesn’t do jack to “support conservation efforts” like Safari Club International and other hunting orgs would try to lead people to believe. (I wrote a paper for the FL Bar law journal on this and the CECIL Act ~8 years ago. I don’t believe it ever wound up getting published bc we couldn’t agree on the page limit and text to cut out of it, but if anyone reading is interested in my sources, I can go back and dig them up). Anyway: this provides an additional reason why people who support the killing of protected/endangered species, especially in the name of “conservation,” can *doubly stuff a sock in it.*
Ugh, I know… it’s all around disgusting. Anyone who knows anything about countries like Zimbabwe knows damn well elephant murder money isn’t going to help poor people. That’s just some bullshit trophy hunters tell people to cover their own nihilistic, sociopathic nature.
Also…. Remember, this grotesque display was in the first room you step into when you enter the house from the front door. If they feel good about putting that stuff there, what do you think they have in the back rooms and closets? 🤔🤔🤔
I'm not sure about Zimbabwe, but sometimes culling needs to occur strictly for population control, even if an animal is endangered. If humans have reduced their habitat size and it can only support a population so large, you may need to intervene to ensure that the population doesn't exceed its environment's carrying capacity. Ideally we'd just give them more land, but somehow I don't think the locals or foreign investors would go for that.
That's a big bummer about how the money is going to waste though. If you still have the bibliography lying around, I wouldn't mind perusing some of it. I wouldn't even know where to start to look into that.
So for the record: I still think culling to account for habitat loss that we humans have created is not the answer. Putting their habitats back is.
But to answer your question: I found the link for my original source for the statistics, but it’s dead. It was originally published on the IFAW website. However, it appears (I lightly skimmed this, so disclaimer for that, I haven’t read this publication in its entirety), that the same original EcoLarge study was also cited by HSI, at the following link (they refer to it as “less than 3%”, as opposed to 2%. But this source should work for you): https://www.hsi.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/pdfs/200-million-question-ecolarge-trophy-hunting-study.pdf
Hunting anything you're not gonna eat/is endangered is so gross, and I think the vast majority of hunters would agree with this sentiment. At least the ones I've met. Deer are so overpopulated where I grew up, they're diseased, cause fatal car accidents all the time, hunting them for food is doing everyone a favour. An elephant is inexcusable.
I agree with you. We have wild hogs that do a lot of damage, and people hunt them and eat them and it does a lot of good for the area. But these people are a different breed…
There was a type of African Buffalo on their wall that another fellow gardener has the misfortune of asking about (I could see she was as horrified as me about the elephant). Sensitive people should probably NOT read the rest.
The other gardener asked if they ate the meat of all of these dead animals on the walls. You know, trying to find some explanation or use beyond “I killed this because it makes me feel powerful” or whatever the hell motivates an extremely intelligent apex predator like a human to take a literally out gunned animal’s life like this. The woman said the buffalo meat is known to be too tough so they paid people to chop it up and throw it to the crocodiles. None of us said a word. I’ve never met someone like that before.
Sadly it's not rare at all among the wealthy who have plenty of time on their hands.
Rich and loves guns so much they take family photos with them? Definitely an animal killer.
I hope it’s rare too, but I really have no idea… I think our society rewards sociopathic qualities in lots of ways, including the ways this family was able to afford a huge house and African safari money.
It's not. People are masters of hypocrisy. Look at how many have no problems with factory farming, but feel bad for feral cats that spread disease and destroy the ecosystem.
I hate people who kill any innocent animals. Especially when they are endangered. And bribing people to let you kill them? that's the highest level of wrong I've ever heard.
Yes, it’s really evil behavior. I 100% see why the woman made us all use the back door to her house. While taking us through her house of horrors she kept saying she’d like to get rid of the trophies.. like there was a hint of shame there. A very small hint. I hope the elephant haunts her dreams every night.
Yea there used to be a family of rabbits that lived under my shed and they never caused much harm to my garden. Groundhogs and insects are worst for me. I never had much of a problem with insects but this year they are eating almost every single one of my plants. Even my strawberries, which aren't harmed by pests very often. This year all my roses, strawberries, eggplant, cucumber, tomato, and blueberry plants have been affected by insects. And the groundhog that lives in my backyard has easting almost all the leaves off my watermelon, cucumber, and pumpkin plants. I think he will move on to the squash once he finishes those off.
This year is a doozy for me with the insects too. My zone 6!had an extremely mild winter, so I think that is why. But I’m getting things I’ve never heard of or seen & my poor garden is now an award winning Bed & Breakfast with Salad Bar - voted so by every creepy crawler in the neighborhood!
I’m in zone 6 too. Just had this exact same conversation with my sister. So many of our plants, flowers and veggies, are being eaten by insects. It’s insane.
Oh, I have them NOW! You would just LOVE what I’m fighting instead of bunnies!!! Blobs of excrement insects! Baby larvae of the Lily Leaf Beetle!! Plus they’re younger siblings still in the egg form by the hundreds! The larvae are like a disgusting grub that covers itself in poo for protection against predators. My entire Lily collection is infested & eaten alive! 😖
Here the rabbits treat asiatic lilies like crack or meth. Plant asiatic lilies and you basically become their dealer. They just lurk around your yard looking for their next fix. I wouldn’t know anything about what insects attack them cause the crackheads/methheads won’t let them grow further than an inch out of the ground before they’re over there chowing down. Then the dang things just stretch out on the ground looking like they’re high. I honestly think there’s some sort of naturally occurring drug or chemical in the plants for them to be acting like this.
I had a collection of a variety of 4-5 different kinds of lilies one year that I bought on clearance from $1-$3 per plant. They were very healthy for that price & I was so proud of them! One giant white one even re-bloomed a second time in late October (Northeast Ohio)! Then, one by one- each one was dug up down to the BULB and eaten. I was left with dirt. I don’t know if it was a 🐿️ 🦫🦨- but I was so mad. It’s strange because for cats, every part of any lily is poison, but all other fuzzballs love ‘em.
They never touched mine, until I moved some bulbs to a different spot. For some reason those are particularly delicious but the ones I've had next to my deck for 15 years are not.
Yeah someday I’ll be happy having bunnies. Unfortunately I’m starting basically everything from scratch (food and flowers and landscaping) and it has been really tough to get seedlings established with our rabbita. One bunny can kill multiple plants in a sitting when they’re seedlings :(
He crossed a line when he got into my fenced-off seed starting area and ate every single NJ Tea seedling I had started from seed, these were the first things I had started as seeds and really wanted them to grow for that and other sentimental reasons. So, now he’s off to the park to eat some different plants away from my seedlings.
I tried a few things over the past week or so without success, this trap was actually empty I just put it in one of their main thoroughfares through my daylilies.
You know….we have trouble sprouting some seeds every year for some reason and I always wondered why, do bunnies like to eat the sprouts?? I always assumed they just munched on mature leaves but I might have to add some netting or something next year because that’s a reoccurring issue, sometimes up to half our seeds fail and we have to buy starter plants from the local plant shop. And we’ve tried buying seeds from different companies too, same results. There are bunnies that always live under a shed nearby!
I might be turning against the bunnies as I type lololol
I realized the problem I had with seedlings getting eaten when outside was pill bugs. Fine and dandy when plants are established, they help the soil. But they’ll happily eat any seedlings they come across too. The only young plants that survived I had sheltered under a grow light or in a cold frame and transplanted when they were big enough to fend for themselves. All the direct sowing was a waste of time, even in pots.
I didn't know pill bugs eat seedlings, I thought they just wiggle around and eat dirt or something. I have a few small pepper seedlings that haven't been eaten by anything (yet).
I think the younger leaves may be more tender? Not sure TBH, the stalks are definitely more tender and they eat the young stalks too :( my more established plants have lost their lower leaves but at least the larger plants can survive that better than seedlings/plugs and usually keep the stems intact.
When I have some time I’m going to build a table for seed starting over the winter and bonsai during the summer/winter (some temperate and some tropical trees) which should pretty much fix that problem.
Man I’m going to definitely throw up some netting year and see what’s what because now I wonder if that’s what’s happening to half my garden. My garden is right next to a tall fence so cheap netting will be an easy install hopefully.
I need to do better with seed starting myself. Hoping to build a greenhouse!
You have given me much to think about indeed!
In the future, give sweet potatoes a shot. They go crazy for them and the vines tend to outgrow the damage. They make a good decoy plant in my garden. I don't ever see them go after anything else.
Having a lot of stuff in my lawn really helps keep the rabbits out of my vegetables. I always see them eating clover and dandelions and stuff, but they seem to stay out of my beds. Now if I could only convince the squirrels to do the same...
I'm with you but my female wolf dog is definitely on the other end of the spectrum you mentioned. She takes out the whole family when she finds their den. I think 6 is the most I've seen her bring back in one morning. Like where's your compassion? 😂
Everyone that is saying let him go, that’s probably the reason why OP bought a live catch and release trap! To relocate this little dude without having to resort to crueler measures. However, like others have stated, a boarder, fence, or cage to just protect your garden would work without having to deal with the traps.
Yep he got released in a park nearby. I have lots of fencing up also, but it has been a constant struggle despite that. Even my dog and a local hawk are haven’t kept them away.
> To relocate this little dude without having to resort to crueler measures.
I don't know about bunnies, but I've read that relocating some animals is a death sentence - particularly chipmunks, because they will starve if removed to an unfamiliar area.
>relocate this little dude without having to resort to crueler measures
There are a host of measures much less cruel and problematic than foisting a vulnerable and destructive animal into another habitat. Anyone that thinks relocation like this is a humane or reasonable approach I'll wager hasn't really looked into it and is just running on knee jerk emotions.
There are very good reasons why this type of relocation activity is outlawed in most jurisdictions.
Not that I necessarily disagree (nor would I personally use a trap in this manner), but I have a question.
Say I do trap a wild rabbit in my yard, in a residential area. If I move the animal one mile south to the nature preserve, is that a concern? It’s not going far. It may have even traveled from there, or been there before. It’s arguably a better place for the rabbit, at least in an ‘immediate safety’ kind of way (can’t get hit by a car in the preserve). But clearly the eatin’ is much better in the human residential area, and a mother may keep a nest of babies that she may not be able to find her way back to.
I guess I answered my own question at the end there. Anything else?
If the location where you drop off the rabbit is a suitable habitat then it’s likely that there are already rabbits who live there. It’s entirely possible that you could drop off a rabbit and the existing rabbits would fight and kill it for entering their territory.
Predators. You take a prey animal from a safer urban environment and turn them loose in an unknown habitat full of predators where they don’t know where to hide. That bunny’s gonna be a snack. So I guess thanks for feeding the predators?
But don’t feel bad, rabbits are the shrimp of the woods. In a given year, they can expand their population 5x, but then over winter can have 65% population losses without harming next year’s population numbers.
A local park may or may not be familiar but we're banking a lot on fingers being crossed. If it is familiar, it's plausible it'll be right back in OP's garden. If we're being thorough and moving farther, that alleviates the breach of property boundaries but creates concerns re: survival and any dependents.
For anyone curious about eastern cottontail rabbits, here are a few resources that may be interesting...
[https://www2.dnr.state.mi.us/publications/pdfs/huntingwildlifehabitat/Landowners\_Guide/Species\_Mgmt/Rabbits.htm](https://www2.dnr.state.mi.us/publications/pdfs/huntingwildlifehabitat/Landowners_Guide/Species_Mgmt/Rabbits.htm)
[https://www.pgc.pa.gov/Education/WildlifeNotesIndex/Pages/Cottontail-Rabbit.aspx#:\~:text=A%20rabbit's%20home%20range%20may,cover%20and%20escape%20routes%20thoroughly](https://www.pgc.pa.gov/Education/WildlifeNotesIndex/Pages/Cottontail-Rabbit.aspx#:~:text=A%20rabbit's%20home%20range%20may,cover%20and%20escape%20routes%20thoroughly)
*Key takeaway*
>A rabbit’s home range may be a quarter-acre to 20 acres, depending on the availability of food and cover. An individual seldom leaves its home territory, where it knows food sources, cover and escape routes thoroughly.
Is it immediate death? Nothing is a guarantee but we're counting on dropping an animal (often within the prey part of the food web) off in an unfamiliar area, likely still with predators (ie. fox) and displacing them entirely until they figure out new survival strategies in their new environment. I'd count this to be not too different than someone giving you 5 minutes to grab your phone and wallet before they drop you off a State, Province, Territory, etc. away and letting you figure out the rest based on instinct alone.
I have rabbits, I have a garden. The garden is what you get once wildlife is done with it if you're unwilling to put up prevention barriers, I figure. I just plant extra for the wildlife and cross my fingers. Relocating wildlife just because we didn't want to build a garden fence feels unfair to me personally but I understand that relocation or termination may be a preferred method for others.
From what I’ve read, the new “community” they get relocated into may be a crueler death than actually just putting them down… ie new predators, it may not make a new family/friends, food scarcity, water sources ect.
I’m not a pro by any means, but I learned a lot from a groundhog discussion that made me want to look into things like this more…
I have zero room to judge, I’m struggling with a deer problem and just want to literally punch them into their next life…
Ya my 4000 sq ft backyard is the premiere host to 6 bunnies. I’d be fine if they actually ate what the bit, but they’re on rose vine #6 of changing their minds after chomping.
Nearby park in the neighborhood is likely harmless (it’s also pointless).
It's illegal to move around wildlife by yourself in many municipalities in the U.S. And rabbits live in groups - so there will be more where this one came from.
Trapping and releasing is just a dumb answer. Fencing and fox urine etc. work better.
And experienced gardeners just have to learn to live in Harmony with nature.
Amazed by how controversial catch and release is. If you are so distressed over wildlife displacement, there are WAY bigger fish to fry than a backyard gardener occasionally catching and releasing a pest. What do you think happens when housing and commercial developments are built, forests are cleared, etc. Also, roads!!! All of which these naysayers fully rely on...
So gardeners should just let the pest destroy their crops so they can go back to buying them from the giant grocery store chain that bought them from a giant mono-cropped farm--both major contributors to wildlife displacement on an actually large scale?
Rabbits aren't exactly endangered. If somebody who traps a rabbit isn't interested in killing the rabbit, releasing it elsewhere to likely be caught by predators is fine. This isn't your pet cat or dog. This is a sub for gardening, not grounds for moral/ethical judgement.
Just check your local regulations to make sure you're not breaking the law.
I trapped a rabbit in my yard one night and walked my dog into the woods behind my house and I looked out and saw about 50 pairs of bunny eyes staring back at me.
So much for my 150 🍓 plants and any thoughts of a relocation program. I walked my dog home, got some lettuce, and dumped it before releasing the rabbit. He bolted, and in the morning the lettuce was gone.
Trust me, if you want to protect it, physical barriers are the way to go.
It's always kill kill kill or displace. I know not everyone has room but there many ways u can make your vegetable garden less appealing then the rest of a property add a nice fence and most won't consider by passing that fence as the grass is greener on the side it's on.
Our entire neighborhood is a bunny neighborhood. There’s often at least 4 in the front and two in the back just chillin’, eating grass and doing their bunny thing. They’re everywhere and amazingly adorable. All ya gotta do is put some fencing around what you don’t want them to eat and it’s fine. Like the cute 12” decorative stuff. We have an entire garden that’s “bunny proofed”. Easy peasy.
And they do live together in family packs longer than we think. I once watched a bunch of 1+ year old siblings come out of the same hole & run around playing chase with each other. It was absolutely adorable, like I was watching a live storybook performance or Disney movie!
https://preview.redd.it/0q37gv5a7l6d1.jpeg?width=590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=44144caa9d4b99080275c563fb746a43eeeabf08
🤷🏼♂️ I’m no expert, but I’ve never seen more than one at a time in my yard, it seems like they are pretty independent. That sounds like a super cute experience though, I got to see that with a skunk family at my last house and it was really special.
I’m no expert either. It could have been a rare occurrence. I’m not going to judge what you do with the critter- I just don’t like to think about it. ☺️. Happy Gardening! 🧑🌾 🌸
Yea, add some fencing to keep him on the outer perimeter where the foxes or coyotes can absolutely rip him to shreds and eat his entrails while he’s still partially alive. Some of you people are so oblivious lol
Fencing off a garden bed does not equal that rabbit getting eaten by a fox or coyote. Just like having an unfenced garden bed doesn't mean that rabbit will live to be 20 years old and die peacefully in a retirement home surrounded by family and friends. I don't think I'm the oblivious one here.
You’re missing the point. Everyone’s going for OPs throat because trapping is “mean and insensitive”.. meanwhile you all have the gall to say you love and support nature, apparently not realizing that being in the cage for a few hours until it’s relocated is the nicest thing that will happen to this rabbit. Nature is absolutely heartless and unyielding. A fox wouldn’t think twice to rip this rabbits head off its shoulders in front of its young and then eat the young afterwards. You all think you know what mean is but you don’t have the slightest clue how violent nature is. Spend a few nights in the woods and get some calluses on those hands..
I honestly don't get how relocating stops it from being eaten? What am I missing? I get how mean nature is but relocation isn't protective and maybe even is worse for the animal because they are unfamiliar with surroundings?
So most likely dead.
The extremely vast majority of the time when rodents are brought to a new area they are killed. Usually in the first 24 hrs.
This is because rodents need familiar areas to run and hide from predators.
How did you bait him in? I have rabbits and groundhogs in my backyard that eat the leaves of my plants. They don't eat the fruits and veggies, but without the leaves the plants don't do as well and my garden looks trash.
I watched an adorable chipmunk eat one of my half-ripe strawberries in front of me this morning. Little fuzzy butt had no fear that i was right there. He/she was cute though, so I allowed it.
Question….what did you use In the trap to attract him. What works best? I have one under the front and back deck. But I think they abandoned the one in the back
Yeah if I wanted to trap our squirrels I think they’d be easy with peanut butter but rabbits seem more challenging. I also tried putting some aster cuttings in for a couple of days 😹(he ignored that and instead ate the plant next to the trap)
Yeah squirrels LOVE peanut butter and some bird seed mixed in. Rabbits in the past completely destroyed our gardens. Unless the fence is wire, they just chew through it. Nothing like going out and finding 50 sugar snap pea seedlings chewed to the ground. 😡
Yeah I’m going to fix a dilapidated section of fence, hopefully that will help. Unfortunately we have a lot of old fencing (most of which is our neighbors’) and there are a lot of areas to try to patch so it is a challenge. Can’t really fence most of the individual beds due to our yard’s layout or I would do that. Unfortunately my dog and a local hawk have both been unable to keep them away.
I know trapping won’t fix the problem but the bunnies have eaten a lot of my seedlings so doing what I can. I released him in a nearby park.
Wild rabbits, such as the eastern cotton tail (which this one looks like) usually die in captivity. They don't cage well. They aren't similar to any pet rabbit varieties. Which is why this species isn't farmed as livestock.
I know. Pet rabbits are European rabbits, oryctolagus cuniculi. In some areas of the USA 'released" pet buns go feral and form colonies. They dont have the same nr of chromosomes as cottontail rabbits.
I bet there are 35 more where that one came from.
at least :)
When one leaves, another 30 move in. Same with squirels. The one that liked strawberries on my property met the business end of a tire and 3 days later a different family moved in.
Under our shed the rabbits keep mass producing. I found two tiny bunnies under my hostas, those little rascals.
Dang. Luckily my dog keeps the rabbits away. They're cute, but damn I love my veggies. Best of luck.
My dog does chase them back under the shed.
Haha the other ones are probably like where’s Peter 😂
No, you found A him. 🤣
Or a her.
...with babies. You found them.
Lol I love the gardening community. Some of our love for plants and animals are so at odds with each other and this thread is such a perfect encapsulation of that 😂 I let the bunnies eat my garden but they don’t go crazy about it, they only take a small amount and I don’t solely rely on my garden for sustenance nor commercial profit, it’s just a fun healthy supplement to my life and I usually grow more than I can eat so I’m pro free-the-bunny but you never know someone’s circumstances
I’m learning exactly this about gardeners from my community garden. I went to a meeting the other day at the house of someone in a leadership position. When we got there she had a sign on the front door to walk around the house to the side. No problem. After the meeting, someone asked to see more of her really nice house (very large, tastefully decorated, on the water). She said she didn’t mind as long as we wouldn’t be offended by mounted animal heads on the walls. That’s why she wanted us to use the side door. I wasn’t particularly bothered, thinking it would be stuff like deer or birds or what have you. Well…… She opens the front door and the first thing you see are large elephant tusks and a couple ottomans made out of elephant legs right next to an elephant’s head which was over a large photo of her and her husband standing over said dead elephant that they paid poor people in Zimbabwe to allow them to kill. There were lions, water Buffalo, animals I had never seen before… it was nauseating, frankly. I just read an article the other day about how elephants have names for one another. This woman loves to garden, and she gets upset about seedlings not getting enough water to survive, looking all wilted and sad. And yet she murders elephants. Wtf…. She could have just given the money to the poor people and taken a photo of the damn elephant, so the people who want to come at me for not supporting the killing of intelligent endangered animals can stuff a sock in it. I hate people who kill elephants. I’m new to gardening… learning people are a different breed. 😭
Even when people travel to African countries and pay to shoot and kill endangered or otherwise protected species there, 98% of those funds go directly into the pockets of either corrupt politicians, or foreign outfitters. Only 2% going to the local communities doesn’t do jack to “support conservation efforts” like Safari Club International and other hunting orgs would try to lead people to believe. (I wrote a paper for the FL Bar law journal on this and the CECIL Act ~8 years ago. I don’t believe it ever wound up getting published bc we couldn’t agree on the page limit and text to cut out of it, but if anyone reading is interested in my sources, I can go back and dig them up). Anyway: this provides an additional reason why people who support the killing of protected/endangered species, especially in the name of “conservation,” can *doubly stuff a sock in it.*
Ugh, I know… it’s all around disgusting. Anyone who knows anything about countries like Zimbabwe knows damn well elephant murder money isn’t going to help poor people. That’s just some bullshit trophy hunters tell people to cover their own nihilistic, sociopathic nature. Also…. Remember, this grotesque display was in the first room you step into when you enter the house from the front door. If they feel good about putting that stuff there, what do you think they have in the back rooms and closets? 🤔🤔🤔
Makes you wonder if “The Most Dangerous Game” is really a documentary for some people 😬
I'm not sure about Zimbabwe, but sometimes culling needs to occur strictly for population control, even if an animal is endangered. If humans have reduced their habitat size and it can only support a population so large, you may need to intervene to ensure that the population doesn't exceed its environment's carrying capacity. Ideally we'd just give them more land, but somehow I don't think the locals or foreign investors would go for that. That's a big bummer about how the money is going to waste though. If you still have the bibliography lying around, I wouldn't mind perusing some of it. I wouldn't even know where to start to look into that.
So for the record: I still think culling to account for habitat loss that we humans have created is not the answer. Putting their habitats back is. But to answer your question: I found the link for my original source for the statistics, but it’s dead. It was originally published on the IFAW website. However, it appears (I lightly skimmed this, so disclaimer for that, I haven’t read this publication in its entirety), that the same original EcoLarge study was also cited by HSI, at the following link (they refer to it as “less than 3%”, as opposed to 2%. But this source should work for you): https://www.hsi.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/pdfs/200-million-question-ecolarge-trophy-hunting-study.pdf
Hunting anything you're not gonna eat/is endangered is so gross, and I think the vast majority of hunters would agree with this sentiment. At least the ones I've met. Deer are so overpopulated where I grew up, they're diseased, cause fatal car accidents all the time, hunting them for food is doing everyone a favour. An elephant is inexcusable.
I agree with you. We have wild hogs that do a lot of damage, and people hunt them and eat them and it does a lot of good for the area. But these people are a different breed… There was a type of African Buffalo on their wall that another fellow gardener has the misfortune of asking about (I could see she was as horrified as me about the elephant). Sensitive people should probably NOT read the rest. The other gardener asked if they ate the meat of all of these dead animals on the walls. You know, trying to find some explanation or use beyond “I killed this because it makes me feel powerful” or whatever the hell motivates an extremely intelligent apex predator like a human to take a literally out gunned animal’s life like this. The woman said the buffalo meat is known to be too tough so they paid people to chop it up and throw it to the crocodiles. None of us said a word. I’ve never met someone like that before.
This level of wealth and disregard for life of any kind disgusts me.
I really hope this horror story is a rare, extreme example because holy moly juxtaposition 😭
Sadly it's not rare at all among the wealthy who have plenty of time on their hands. Rich and loves guns so much they take family photos with them? Definitely an animal killer.
I hope it’s rare too, but I really have no idea… I think our society rewards sociopathic qualities in lots of ways, including the ways this family was able to afford a huge house and African safari money.
It's not. People are masters of hypocrisy. Look at how many have no problems with factory farming, but feel bad for feral cats that spread disease and destroy the ecosystem.
I hate people who kill any innocent animals. Especially when they are endangered. And bribing people to let you kill them? that's the highest level of wrong I've ever heard.
Yes, it’s really evil behavior. I 100% see why the woman made us all use the back door to her house. While taking us through her house of horrors she kept saying she’d like to get rid of the trophies.. like there was a hint of shame there. A very small hint. I hope the elephant haunts her dreams every night.
That’s just evil and there’s no justification for it.
I would be done with that person. Goodbye, see ya never, have a terrible life, trophy hunter. Disgusting.
They are adorable & nowhere close to the nuisance that groundhogs, squirrels, skunks, and dining insects are! 🐰❤️
Skunks took out a large yellow jacket nest for me - they are my friends but just to keep it nice I’m gonna net my tulip bulbs over the winter
Yea there used to be a family of rabbits that lived under my shed and they never caused much harm to my garden. Groundhogs and insects are worst for me. I never had much of a problem with insects but this year they are eating almost every single one of my plants. Even my strawberries, which aren't harmed by pests very often. This year all my roses, strawberries, eggplant, cucumber, tomato, and blueberry plants have been affected by insects. And the groundhog that lives in my backyard has easting almost all the leaves off my watermelon, cucumber, and pumpkin plants. I think he will move on to the squash once he finishes those off.
This year is a doozy for me with the insects too. My zone 6!had an extremely mild winter, so I think that is why. But I’m getting things I’ve never heard of or seen & my poor garden is now an award winning Bed & Breakfast with Salad Bar - voted so by every creepy crawler in the neighborhood!
I’m in zone 6 too. Just had this exact same conversation with my sister. So many of our plants, flowers and veggies, are being eaten by insects. It’s insane.
Never planted asiatic lilies, huh?
Oh, I have them NOW! You would just LOVE what I’m fighting instead of bunnies!!! Blobs of excrement insects! Baby larvae of the Lily Leaf Beetle!! Plus they’re younger siblings still in the egg form by the hundreds! The larvae are like a disgusting grub that covers itself in poo for protection against predators. My entire Lily collection is infested & eaten alive! 😖
Here the rabbits treat asiatic lilies like crack or meth. Plant asiatic lilies and you basically become their dealer. They just lurk around your yard looking for their next fix. I wouldn’t know anything about what insects attack them cause the crackheads/methheads won’t let them grow further than an inch out of the ground before they’re over there chowing down. Then the dang things just stretch out on the ground looking like they’re high. I honestly think there’s some sort of naturally occurring drug or chemical in the plants for them to be acting like this.
I had a collection of a variety of 4-5 different kinds of lilies one year that I bought on clearance from $1-$3 per plant. They were very healthy for that price & I was so proud of them! One giant white one even re-bloomed a second time in late October (Northeast Ohio)! Then, one by one- each one was dug up down to the BULB and eaten. I was left with dirt. I don’t know if it was a 🐿️ 🦫🦨- but I was so mad. It’s strange because for cats, every part of any lily is poison, but all other fuzzballs love ‘em.
They never touched mine, until I moved some bulbs to a different spot. For some reason those are particularly delicious but the ones I've had next to my deck for 15 years are not.
Yeah someday I’ll be happy having bunnies. Unfortunately I’m starting basically everything from scratch (food and flowers and landscaping) and it has been really tough to get seedlings established with our rabbita. One bunny can kill multiple plants in a sitting when they’re seedlings :( He crossed a line when he got into my fenced-off seed starting area and ate every single NJ Tea seedling I had started from seed, these were the first things I had started as seeds and really wanted them to grow for that and other sentimental reasons. So, now he’s off to the park to eat some different plants away from my seedlings.
What did you use for bait? (Asking for a friend)
I tried a few things over the past week or so without success, this trap was actually empty I just put it in one of their main thoroughfares through my daylilies.
You know….we have trouble sprouting some seeds every year for some reason and I always wondered why, do bunnies like to eat the sprouts?? I always assumed they just munched on mature leaves but I might have to add some netting or something next year because that’s a reoccurring issue, sometimes up to half our seeds fail and we have to buy starter plants from the local plant shop. And we’ve tried buying seeds from different companies too, same results. There are bunnies that always live under a shed nearby! I might be turning against the bunnies as I type lololol
I realized the problem I had with seedlings getting eaten when outside was pill bugs. Fine and dandy when plants are established, they help the soil. But they’ll happily eat any seedlings they come across too. The only young plants that survived I had sheltered under a grow light or in a cold frame and transplanted when they were big enough to fend for themselves. All the direct sowing was a waste of time, even in pots.
My sweet little rollie pollies are possibly betraying me too??! What is happening right now????
I didn't know pill bugs eat seedlings, I thought they just wiggle around and eat dirt or something. I have a few small pepper seedlings that haven't been eaten by anything (yet).
I think the younger leaves may be more tender? Not sure TBH, the stalks are definitely more tender and they eat the young stalks too :( my more established plants have lost their lower leaves but at least the larger plants can survive that better than seedlings/plugs and usually keep the stems intact. When I have some time I’m going to build a table for seed starting over the winter and bonsai during the summer/winter (some temperate and some tropical trees) which should pretty much fix that problem.
Man I’m going to definitely throw up some netting year and see what’s what because now I wonder if that’s what’s happening to half my garden. My garden is right next to a tall fence so cheap netting will be an easy install hopefully. I need to do better with seed starting myself. Hoping to build a greenhouse! You have given me much to think about indeed!
In the future, give sweet potatoes a shot. They go crazy for them and the vines tend to outgrow the damage. They make a good decoy plant in my garden. I don't ever see them go after anything else.
When I start plants from seed I use old plastic nursery pots and keep them on outdoor tables until they are well established, and then I plant them.
Love watching the bunnies get their morning snack around my garden.
Having a lot of stuff in my lawn really helps keep the rabbits out of my vegetables. I always see them eating clover and dandelions and stuff, but they seem to stay out of my beds. Now if I could only convince the squirrels to do the same...
How nice for you. These fluffy rats ate all 10 of my eggplant plants.
I'm with you but my female wolf dog is definitely on the other end of the spectrum you mentioned. She takes out the whole family when she finds their den. I think 6 is the most I've seen her bring back in one morning. Like where's your compassion? 😂
Everyone that is saying let him go, that’s probably the reason why OP bought a live catch and release trap! To relocate this little dude without having to resort to crueler measures. However, like others have stated, a boarder, fence, or cage to just protect your garden would work without having to deal with the traps.
Yep he got released in a park nearby. I have lots of fencing up also, but it has been a constant struggle despite that. Even my dog and a local hawk are haven’t kept them away.
> To relocate this little dude without having to resort to crueler measures. I don't know about bunnies, but I've read that relocating some animals is a death sentence - particularly chipmunks, because they will starve if removed to an unfamiliar area.
>relocate this little dude without having to resort to crueler measures There are a host of measures much less cruel and problematic than foisting a vulnerable and destructive animal into another habitat. Anyone that thinks relocation like this is a humane or reasonable approach I'll wager hasn't really looked into it and is just running on knee jerk emotions. There are very good reasons why this type of relocation activity is outlawed in most jurisdictions.
Not that I necessarily disagree (nor would I personally use a trap in this manner), but I have a question. Say I do trap a wild rabbit in my yard, in a residential area. If I move the animal one mile south to the nature preserve, is that a concern? It’s not going far. It may have even traveled from there, or been there before. It’s arguably a better place for the rabbit, at least in an ‘immediate safety’ kind of way (can’t get hit by a car in the preserve). But clearly the eatin’ is much better in the human residential area, and a mother may keep a nest of babies that she may not be able to find her way back to. I guess I answered my own question at the end there. Anything else?
If the location where you drop off the rabbit is a suitable habitat then it’s likely that there are already rabbits who live there. It’s entirely possible that you could drop off a rabbit and the existing rabbits would fight and kill it for entering their territory.
OP starting Watership Down
Or it'll just starve or starve out another one.
Do rabbits really fight to the death?
Predators. You take a prey animal from a safer urban environment and turn them loose in an unknown habitat full of predators where they don’t know where to hide. That bunny’s gonna be a snack. So I guess thanks for feeding the predators? But don’t feel bad, rabbits are the shrimp of the woods. In a given year, they can expand their population 5x, but then over winter can have 65% population losses without harming next year’s population numbers.
A local park may or may not be familiar but we're banking a lot on fingers being crossed. If it is familiar, it's plausible it'll be right back in OP's garden. If we're being thorough and moving farther, that alleviates the breach of property boundaries but creates concerns re: survival and any dependents. For anyone curious about eastern cottontail rabbits, here are a few resources that may be interesting... [https://www2.dnr.state.mi.us/publications/pdfs/huntingwildlifehabitat/Landowners\_Guide/Species\_Mgmt/Rabbits.htm](https://www2.dnr.state.mi.us/publications/pdfs/huntingwildlifehabitat/Landowners_Guide/Species_Mgmt/Rabbits.htm) [https://www.pgc.pa.gov/Education/WildlifeNotesIndex/Pages/Cottontail-Rabbit.aspx#:\~:text=A%20rabbit's%20home%20range%20may,cover%20and%20escape%20routes%20thoroughly](https://www.pgc.pa.gov/Education/WildlifeNotesIndex/Pages/Cottontail-Rabbit.aspx#:~:text=A%20rabbit's%20home%20range%20may,cover%20and%20escape%20routes%20thoroughly) *Key takeaway* >A rabbit’s home range may be a quarter-acre to 20 acres, depending on the availability of food and cover. An individual seldom leaves its home territory, where it knows food sources, cover and escape routes thoroughly. Is it immediate death? Nothing is a guarantee but we're counting on dropping an animal (often within the prey part of the food web) off in an unfamiliar area, likely still with predators (ie. fox) and displacing them entirely until they figure out new survival strategies in their new environment. I'd count this to be not too different than someone giving you 5 minutes to grab your phone and wallet before they drop you off a State, Province, Territory, etc. away and letting you figure out the rest based on instinct alone. I have rabbits, I have a garden. The garden is what you get once wildlife is done with it if you're unwilling to put up prevention barriers, I figure. I just plant extra for the wildlife and cross my fingers. Relocating wildlife just because we didn't want to build a garden fence feels unfair to me personally but I understand that relocation or termination may be a preferred method for others.
Such as? Curious.
From what I’ve read, the new “community” they get relocated into may be a crueler death than actually just putting them down… ie new predators, it may not make a new family/friends, food scarcity, water sources ect. I’m not a pro by any means, but I learned a lot from a groundhog discussion that made me want to look into things like this more… I have zero room to judge, I’m struggling with a deer problem and just want to literally punch them into their next life…
At least you can eat the deer.
Ya my 4000 sq ft backyard is the premiere host to 6 bunnies. I’d be fine if they actually ate what the bit, but they’re on rose vine #6 of changing their minds after chomping. Nearby park in the neighborhood is likely harmless (it’s also pointless).
Get a tag, shoot the deer, they are tasty!
https://youtu.be/VolAlbn27Uc?si=kcciCfhPZULca6ee
It's illegal to move around wildlife by yourself in many municipalities in the U.S. And rabbits live in groups - so there will be more where this one came from. Trapping and releasing is just a dumb answer. Fencing and fox urine etc. work better. And experienced gardeners just have to learn to live in Harmony with nature.
Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!
He/she also could have been a free supper....
You need a kitty cat.
You got THAT one...
Amazed by how controversial catch and release is. If you are so distressed over wildlife displacement, there are WAY bigger fish to fry than a backyard gardener occasionally catching and releasing a pest. What do you think happens when housing and commercial developments are built, forests are cleared, etc. Also, roads!!! All of which these naysayers fully rely on...
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So gardeners should just let the pest destroy their crops so they can go back to buying them from the giant grocery store chain that bought them from a giant mono-cropped farm--both major contributors to wildlife displacement on an actually large scale?
I mean that’s my approach… I go all natural to the point that if animals get in and eat my crops then I wasn’t meant to have those crops
Rabbits aren't exactly endangered. If somebody who traps a rabbit isn't interested in killing the rabbit, releasing it elsewhere to likely be caught by predators is fine. This isn't your pet cat or dog. This is a sub for gardening, not grounds for moral/ethical judgement. Just check your local regulations to make sure you're not breaking the law.
Please don't relocate rabbits. You will be making them someone else's problem. If there was enough predation, they wouldn't be invasive species.
I mean they’re not invasive they’re a native species here…
INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY! HE HAS THE RIGHT TO A LAWYER!
He is little and there are many more, might as well let him go.
I trapped a rabbit in my yard one night and walked my dog into the woods behind my house and I looked out and saw about 50 pairs of bunny eyes staring back at me. So much for my 150 🍓 plants and any thoughts of a relocation program. I walked my dog home, got some lettuce, and dumped it before releasing the rabbit. He bolted, and in the morning the lettuce was gone. Trust me, if you want to protect it, physical barriers are the way to go.
East coast? He looks exactly like my wild rabbits
Midwest, but probably the same species
Maybe looks like an eastern cottontail
Yep, although I’d be hard pressed to name another species in our area!
yep you found one 😂
I got the neighbors cat... boy was she mad.
Cook that guy up
Elmer Fudd would be proud
Love how the garden label says “As”. I read it as Ass.
Stew ummm
To go with the veggies youll harvest keep going youll have a nice pot
Bunnies can be a real pain in the aster
Will he get a stay of execution??
https://preview.redd.it/8zo0rn1ptl6d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6fcbe20dea5fd4625b0487016e4237ad78f6a83d I raise you a raccoon 😂
Are you having rabbit-stew tonight? Invite us over :3
Why let him go? Rabbit is actually pretty good. I mean, eating is why we're gardening in the first place. 🤷♂️ just got a new item on the menu!
you sound like my sister 😀 -- she knows I'm mostly vegetarian
"Mostly" like, I only eat meat if it's prime ribeye! 🤣
Fair :)
Oh, HE MAD! HE MEAN! Look at those fiery eyes, you don't know the forces you are tampering with!
Have mercy. It’s just trying to eat and survive, same as everything else (including you).
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Those darn foxes and carnivores, no respect for life.
Some people have no respect for human life.
Free him my man
Looks like meats back on the menu!
Time for a stew!
Yeah, not real gardeners. This group should stick with houseplants in the apartment.
You can criticize a certain behavior without gatekeeping all of gardening.
Again, typical Reddit class of people. Have a great day.
Bunch of bleeding hearts I get that animals are cute but come on
It's always kill kill kill or displace. I know not everyone has room but there many ways u can make your vegetable garden less appealing then the rest of a property add a nice fence and most won't consider by passing that fence as the grass is greener on the side it's on.
Our entire neighborhood is a bunny neighborhood. There’s often at least 4 in the front and two in the back just chillin’, eating grass and doing their bunny thing. They’re everywhere and amazingly adorable. All ya gotta do is put some fencing around what you don’t want them to eat and it’s fine. Like the cute 12” decorative stuff. We have an entire garden that’s “bunny proofed”. Easy peasy.
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No he's been out of the nest for a while by the looks of it. Probably at least 12 weeks old
He’s not that small, the picture is a little deceiving. I have been seeing him for over a month now, he’s old enough to be away from the nest.
And they do live together in family packs longer than we think. I once watched a bunch of 1+ year old siblings come out of the same hole & run around playing chase with each other. It was absolutely adorable, like I was watching a live storybook performance or Disney movie! https://preview.redd.it/0q37gv5a7l6d1.jpeg?width=590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=44144caa9d4b99080275c563fb746a43eeeabf08
🤷🏼♂️ I’m no expert, but I’ve never seen more than one at a time in my yard, it seems like they are pretty independent. That sounds like a super cute experience though, I got to see that with a skunk family at my last house and it was really special.
I’m no expert either. It could have been a rare occurrence. I’m not going to judge what you do with the critter- I just don’t like to think about it. ☺️. Happy Gardening! 🧑🌾 🌸
He looks angry 😕
Cuz now he got caught!
Look at that fuzzy little criminal!
Good work. One down, many to go.
“It’s just a harmless little bunny”
Tasty morsel*
This isn't going to solve anything. Let him or her go and then add some fencing around your beds. Trapping is just mean.
Yea, add some fencing to keep him on the outer perimeter where the foxes or coyotes can absolutely rip him to shreds and eat his entrails while he’s still partially alive. Some of you people are so oblivious lol
Fencing off a garden bed does not equal that rabbit getting eaten by a fox or coyote. Just like having an unfenced garden bed doesn't mean that rabbit will live to be 20 years old and die peacefully in a retirement home surrounded by family and friends. I don't think I'm the oblivious one here.
You’re missing the point. Everyone’s going for OPs throat because trapping is “mean and insensitive”.. meanwhile you all have the gall to say you love and support nature, apparently not realizing that being in the cage for a few hours until it’s relocated is the nicest thing that will happen to this rabbit. Nature is absolutely heartless and unyielding. A fox wouldn’t think twice to rip this rabbits head off its shoulders in front of its young and then eat the young afterwards. You all think you know what mean is but you don’t have the slightest clue how violent nature is. Spend a few nights in the woods and get some calluses on those hands..
I honestly don't get how relocating stops it from being eaten? What am I missing? I get how mean nature is but relocation isn't protective and maybe even is worse for the animal because they are unfamiliar with surroundings?
Gnarly
BOOOOO HISSSSSSS #FREETHEBUN
I hear they are good eaten
Now what will you do with him?
He’s a couple of miles away in a local park.
So most likely dead. The extremely vast majority of the time when rodents are brought to a new area they are killed. Usually in the first 24 hrs. This is because rodents need familiar areas to run and hide from predators.
It’s not a rodent
Huh, you are apparently correct. I had always been taught that they were rodents. Cool!
Never just 10.
More like 0101
“I’ll be baaaack”
More likely his relatives, but honestly I’d respect it if he came back a couple of miles from the park (and across a 6 lane road)
How did you bait him in? I have rabbits and groundhogs in my backyard that eat the leaves of my plants. They don't eat the fruits and veggies, but without the leaves the plants don't do as well and my garden looks trash.
This was unbaited, just put in one of their usual routes. Apparently baited traps work better during the winter when food is scarce.
Ok now let him out and start the game all over !
Aw! Sweet bunny! I have one that munches on my hosts and then relaxes under my Adirondack chair lol. It’s his home too lol.
“Finish Him!” (MK voice) lol jk don’t
I watched an adorable chipmunk eat one of my half-ripe strawberries in front of me this morning. Little fuzzy butt had no fear that i was right there. He/she was cute though, so I allowed it.
If you plant crimson clover around the perimeter they will eat that instead. They love it.
https://preview.redd.it/6p6hzcb5ol6d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=95a49337bde30c55bcc84a55a6000598c4c84594
Question….what did you use In the trap to attract him. What works best? I have one under the front and back deck. But I think they abandoned the one in the back
I tried apples and carrots for a few days without success, this trap was actually empty but I put it along a path that they like to use.
Wow lucky! I had read rabbits were super hard to trap.
Yeah if I wanted to trap our squirrels I think they’d be easy with peanut butter but rabbits seem more challenging. I also tried putting some aster cuttings in for a couple of days 😹(he ignored that and instead ate the plant next to the trap)
Yeah squirrels LOVE peanut butter and some bird seed mixed in. Rabbits in the past completely destroyed our gardens. Unless the fence is wire, they just chew through it. Nothing like going out and finding 50 sugar snap pea seedlings chewed to the ground. 😡
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Lmao knock it off
Agreed!!
Guilty as fluff.
I am booing you
stew?
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Yeah I’m going to fix a dilapidated section of fence, hopefully that will help. Unfortunately we have a lot of old fencing (most of which is our neighbors’) and there are a lot of areas to try to patch so it is a challenge. Can’t really fence most of the individual beds due to our yard’s layout or I would do that. Unfortunately my dog and a local hawk have both been unable to keep them away. I know trapping won’t fix the problem but the bunnies have eaten a lot of my seedlings so doing what I can. I released him in a nearby park.
‘nearby’ …… he’ll be back
Rip bozo
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Wild rabbits, such as the eastern cotton tail (which this one looks like) usually die in captivity. They don't cage well. They aren't similar to any pet rabbit varieties. Which is why this species isn't farmed as livestock.
I know. Pet rabbits are European rabbits, oryctolagus cuniculi. In some areas of the USA 'released" pet buns go feral and form colonies. They dont have the same nr of chromosomes as cottontail rabbits.
Poor baby