Baby rabbits don't need rescuing

Yesterday I very nearly stepped on a baby rabbit on my lawn. It didn't move even though I stepped right next to it. At first I thought it was dead, but then I could detect a faint nose twitch and a slight motion of breathing. I went inside for my camera, came back out and was able to put the camera within inches of the critter to get a close-up pic. Then I noticed a second one only about two feet away, again not showing much in the way of signs of life.

My aunt and a cousin showed up and we pondered what to do, if anything. Then another two cousins came along and we discussed it more. I had not seen any adult rabbits on or near my property all spring or summer—lots of squirrels and a couple snakes, but no rabbits. We were unable to find a rabbit nest (or even the remnants of one) in the area. The bunnies did not seem very lively and we thought something must have happened to the mother. The lawn is dry and brittle, so it didn't seem to me as if they'd have much to eat if they stayed where they were.

So in the end we decided to try to "rescue" the bunnies. They both let my cousins scoop them right up in their hands, although one did get a little frisky after a short bit and briefly escaped before we corralled it again. In the meantime we found a third one within ten feet, just on the other side of a maple tree. This one was also quite docile and let itself be picked up with no obvious resistance or fear. I didn't get a pic of the third one at the time and place of discovery, but later I did get a group shot of the three siblings in their temporary cardboard box shelter. Click the following cute thumbanils for the even cuter larger versions...

     



Now for the somewhat less cute part. I didn't have time right then to go inside the house, boot up the computer and Google what to do when encountering seemingly abandoned or possibly orphaned baby rabbits. If I had I would have found these pages:

Saving Wild Baby Rabbits

Caring for Orphaned Wild Cottontail Bunnies

Despite the titles, those pages (and others) essentially agree that unless you specifically know somehow that you've found orphaned baby rabbits, don't assume that they're orphaned. Apparently the mama nurses the young just before dawn and just after dark, but otherwise stays away from the nest. This is explained as her way of not drawing attention to the nest, which might potentially lead predators to her babies. It has a certain logic to it, though I still don't know if humans can really attribute such consciously logical thinking to rabbits. I'm willing to trust the experts, though, since I admit I know squat about such things, especially since due to childhood allergies I've never had pets.

In the pictures you may notice a very small white streak on the head of each baby bunny. One of those informational pages I link to above specifically mentions a "white blaze" on the heads of baby rabbits and I can only assume that that's what it is on the pups. The page explains that if the "white blaze" is there then the babies are still under the mother's care, if not then they're able to fend for themselves. I also recall reading on one of the pages about the ears being still flat to the head, which they were on these young ones, but that later on as the kids mature the ears will perk up. From my reading, it seems as if these babies are older than I imagined, but still not quite ready to be on their own.

In the end we decided to un-rescue them and re-release them back in the same area where we found them in the hope that Mama will find them again and resume caring for them. I only hope we did no harm despite the proverbial best of intentions.

So the moral of this story is... Nature has her way and wild animals have been caring for their own for untold eons, so unless you absolutely know that young critters are orphaned and that they need some specific sort of care you can provide or quickly seek out, just leave wild animals (even cute ones) be wild.