Is it true that rabbits don't eat grass in the nest? Why?

The saying "rabbits don't eat grass on the edge of the nest" is a phrase we often hear, but most people don't know that its next phrase is "there is grass on the edge of the nest, why run all over the mountain", these two sentences together to complete a sentence, and are more reasonable. But the fact is that rabbits, do not eat the grass on the edge of the nest depending on many factors, In the following, we will look at what circumstances, rabbits will eat the grass on the edge of the nest. What is the case, it does not eat the grass on the edge.

The hare is a very familiar animal, and it is also one of the most widely distributed and abundant mammals. However, the hare does not refer to a single species but is the collective name for more than thirty species under the genus Hare in the rabbit family. Speaking of which, most people think that the ancestor of the domestic rabbit is the hare the domestic rabbit is domesticated from the burrowing hare, and the hare is not even the same as the subfamily, belonging to the only genus of burrowing hare under the subfamily Palaeontidae, which is the guy that once flooded Australia to reach several 10 billion.

Now many partners should understand why the meat of domestic rabbits is not very tasty, and wild rabbits are the more delicious reason, right? It is not a matter of living environment, they are not an animal at all.

In China, there are two kinds of hares: the grass rabbit and the South China rabbit, of which the grass rabbit is distributed in the north and south of China, with as many as 50 different subspecies, the average body length of about 45 cm, weighing about 2 kg, the ears are longer about 11 cm, the hind legs are longer than the front legs, about 10 cm, and the tail is about the same length, good at running, the body is mainly yellowish brown.

Grass hare

The South China rabbit is mainly distributed in most areas south of the Yangtze River in China. They are smaller than grass rabbits, with an average body length of about 40 cm and an average weight of 1.8 kg. The tail is relatively short, only about half the length of the hind legs, and the hair on the back of the body is grayish-black.

Well, let's get back to the subject, although the appearance of the grass rabbit and the South China rabbit are somewhat different, the habits are still relatively similar, so let's take the grass rabbit as an example to talk about their attitude towards the "nest grass".

South China rabbit

Most of the rabbits will eat grass

There is a fundamental difference between the grass rabbit and the burrowing rabbit in terms of habits. The burrowing rabbit is a burrowing animal and is good at digging holes. They do not have the so-called "three holes".

Grass hares usually nest in grasses and bushes on hillsides, meadows, depressions, and the edges of woods near farmland. However, grasses and bushes where grass hares are located are usually low, because high grasses or bushes are sheltering, but they also block the grass hares' view.

The grass hare's main food is grass, which also includes the nest by its nest. This is because the grass hare is actually a diurnal animal, which can avoid most predators, especially raptors from the sky, by moving at night, while during the day, the grass hare usually has the back half of its body in the nest, showing only half of its body, and then stays almost motionless inside.

Since there are many dried types of grass on the ground around the grass hare's nest, these dried grasses are highly consistent with their body color and play a good concealing role. Although the raptors in the sky have keen vision, they are unable to find the grass hare that stays motionless in the nest.

Therefore, the real grass does not help much in hiding the grass rabbits. Therefore, if you have seen the nests of grass rabbits, then you will find that the grass around them has obvious traces of being nibbled off.

The claim that the lush grass can block the view of predators on the ground is nonsense, because the main threat to the grass hare on the ground is canines, felines, and weasels, and these animals rely mainly on their sense of smell for food, so even if the grass hare hides in the grass, it will not play any defensive role.

In addition, the grass here is partial to the indefinite, although their activities are relatively fixed in the general area, they hide in a place that is not fixed, sometimes a small bush, sometimes a small pit, sometimes a pile of leaves, etc. Therefore, if there is abundant grass near the nest, apparently the grass hare will not be near and far, but first, eat the grass near the nest.

Grass rabbits don't eat grass near their nests either

There is one situation in which a Grass Rabbit will not eat the grass around the nest, and that is during the breeding season. Although the grass rabbits tend to be indefinite, they will stay in the same place during the breeding period, which is after they have given birth, because they are mammals and will have a lactation period of about a month.

During the lactation period, the young are vulnerable, and during this period, the female rabbit needs to go out for food, so hiding the young becomes a big problem, at this time, the female rabbit will tend not to eat the grass around the nest, let the young stay in the hole, and after a month, the young can move alone.

Survival strategies of hares

The hare is a herbivore, they are at the bottom of the food chain and have many natural predators, not to mention raptors in the air, snakes on the ground, and small and medium-sized carnivores in the recipes of the hare is a relatively large proportion. Although the hare has a very fast running speed, once found by natural predators is very easy to be arrested and killed.

Therefore, the hare's survival strategy does not depend on how much it can run, how much it can lie around at night and how smart it is, but on how much it can live. If you look at the entire natural world, animals that can live are usually more natural enemies, and raw is their best survival strategy to deal with the cruelty of nature, this point looks at the mouse and understand.

The hare usually breeds 3-4 litters a year, with an average of 3-7 in a litter, so that a female can give birth to at least 10 and as many as 30 offspring a year, and the first and second litter can reproduce in the same year, such a strong reproductive capacity, so that even in the face of many natural predators, the hare still retains a considerable number.

At the end

When people find that rabbits don't eat the grass around their nests, they probably find that rabbits use their nests for breeding because such nests also depend on the grass around them to protect their young, but rabbits have countless temporary nests because they live in an indefinite place except during lactation.