It never ceases to amaze me.  I know Cottontail Rabbits can secret their young in the oddest of places, but I never thought I’d find a nest under a classroom chair.  It was strange enough that a bunch of bunnies were holed up along the edge of the other classroom wall last week, but this one takes the cake. 

  These particular rooms are wall tents that we use as outdoor classrooms at the Marshlands Museum.  The floor is made up of grass and straw and the chairs are of the folding variety, but active classrooms they are.  Over the course of a given day they are noisily occupied all day Monday through Friday.

  The first nest was discovered after the little bunnlets were seen dashing about inside the tent.  The location was inside the door and out of the traffic mainstream to the left. We set up the tents up at the end of April, so the female responsible for these bunnies must have set up shop the very night after they were put up. The little ones never bolted or showed themselves while class was in session, but remained hidden beneath a layer of fur and straw.

  This latest bunny nest is under the third chair in the third row in the second tent.  It is quite new, but based on the size of the babies, it has been there for a few days. Fortunately the nest is nearly impossible to see – being directly under the chair seat where the grass has not been worn down by shuffling feet (take a look here). 

  Cottontails are masters of nest camouflage.  As one of the most prolific mammals on earth – a female can have up to 4 litters a year- they certainly get a lot of nesting practice. By secreting their nests right in the middle of the target, they are able to avoid detection.  Often the location is in the middle of an open lawn or literally right beneath your feet.

  The nest itself is nothing more than a shallow bowl. In this case, the depression is only about 6 inches across and probably 4 inches deep.  A dense layer of fur provides a comfortable bed liner at the bottom of the bowl. Another fur layer is pulled over the young when she leaves.  As a final dressing, a layer of straw is arranged over the top.   Overall, the only indication of this nest was a tuft of fur sticking out of the straw.

  I gently teased the straw away and peeled the fur blanket back to take a look at the miniature bunnies inside. The felt-like coverlet consists of soft fur plucked directly from the doe’s belly and it is surprisingly dense. Tucked well inside their fur pita pocket, six tightly packed young are revealed (see them here).

  These little ones were brand new and each was about the size of a fat thumb (about 1 ounce in weight).  Their eyes and ears were sealed shut, which is an indication that they are still under 4 or 5 days old. Their soft gray bodies are just starting to take on a layer of precise hairs.  Each fat little tummy is rose petal pink to match the color of the neatly formed paws and pouting mouths.  Obviously aware of the disturbance to their dark world, they squirm about and seek the shelter of their siblings.

  Cottontails Rabbits are members of a group of mammals called Lagomorphs. They share this order with the hares (Snowshoe Hares are a common northern Michigan example).  While both of them have hare-lips, the biggest difference between a rabbit and a hare becomes evident at this early growth stage. Hare young come out of the hatch fully “haired” with their eyes & ears open. They are ready to do the tango within minutes of their birth. Rabbit young, on the other foot, are blind, hairless and completely helpless when they are born.

  I suppose I could mention that defenseless rabbit young are called “Altricial Young,” but that probably is not entirely necessary.  I can authoritatively state that it was a Hare, and not a rabbit, that beat the tortoise. For the sake of completeness, however, I should mention that Pikas are also members of the Lagomorgh clan and that there was a giant extinct bunny called the Minorcan Giant Lagomorph that once roamed the earth. All of this is fairly useless knowledge, so I won’t burden you with it.

  I covered up my little clutch and left them to their future. They’ll grow by leaps and bounds (pun intended) by adding 2.5 grams of body fat per day thanks to mom’s rich milk. Mom will return to feed them daily just before dawn and around dusk, but she will leave the nest alone most of the time. Although I’ve not seen it, the female apparently positions herself over the nest and the babies poke up through the fur to grab a drink.  In this way the nest surface remains undisturbed. Should things proceed as normal, these little guys will open their eyes on the 5^th or 6^th day, leave the nest after 15 days and be fully weaned within two weeks.

  With the school season just about finished, this latest crop of rabbits should be up and out of the classroom in no time. Unfortunately, many of them won’t be around for the fall semester. The trick with bunny watching is not to get attached to any individual rabbit.  They are born to be eaten, so their survival is not good. Within two years nearly all of these rabbits will be in the history books.