a dead rabbit in the garden

geordief

I found it this morning ,cold and stiff and no obvious sign of injury.

What might have done for it.

In the past I have found a dead rat in the same area (I do have the odd block or two near the house) and I have also seen ,not so recently a ferret (?) in the vegetable garden.

As I say , no sign of injury on the rabbit(with the rat there was blood around the mouth as I suspect is usual)

If the ferret had attacked the rabbit would it have just left it there in the open?

Is there any rabbit disease around that might be attacking them generally?(I think myxomatosis would be easy to spot as it, I think disfiguring unlike on this occasion)

If a rabbit was sick ,would it just lie down and die in the open?

Might it have had a heart attack when it ran into the ferret ?

As a side issue is it quite easy to net the rabbits when you have lots around?
I have tried those metal cage traps without much luck even though I do suspect them of eating my spinach.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Quite likely it was killed by a predator like a Stoat. They kill rabbits by damaging the spine. It may have been disturbed and abandoned the kill?

I'll not suggest ways of tackling rabbits on a Nature forum even though they wreck my vegetable patch.

geordief

I can't think what might have disturbed the stoat . It had been there for some time and quite cold(hardly anyone goes in the garden).

I have come across the "stoat" in the garden before and it was not really intimidated by my presence -it stared right back at me.

If it was him or her though I wish him good hunting:)

dodderangler

Don't suppose you spray any pesticide or anything on the vegetables?

gctest50

A large cat maybe ? would have the strength to kill it without miuch of a struggle

There's slow-motion at the end of this, you can see Garfields strength :


( obv. its a cat killing a rabbit before anyone clicks and is traumatised by nature )

savagethegoat

apparently Rabbits die quite easily so it's possible it was attacked and dropped dead as a result.

geordief

savagethegoat wrote: »

apparently Rabbits die quite easily so it's possible it was attacked and dropped dead as a result.

Yes ,I wondered that too.

No ,no pesticides at all anywhere.

That's a good video gctest50 . We have no cats but they do show up very occasionally.

Very impressive how the cat fished the rabbit from his hole even with a little
head start.

CJmasgrande

I used to have a cat that hunted rabbits all the time. He used to sit outside rabbit burrows for days waiting for the moment.