Rabbits

[The Moonshiner]

Space is the key.
I have had free range rabbits for a few years now.
They have unlimited area but you hardly ever see a lone rabbit.
They live in groups and since they have the choice I can't agree they would want to live alone.
You can go out in the evenings or mornings and watch them as they interact and you'd never see rabbits as anything but social animals.

 

[Kessel23]

Space is the key.
I have had free range rabbits for a few years now.
They have unlimited area but you hardly ever see a lone rabbit.
They live in groups and since they have the choice I can't agree they would want to live alone.
You can go out in the evenings or mornings and watch them as they interact and you'd never see rabbits as anything but social animals.

x2
I have "free range rabbits" (actually just escaped rabbits that got to wild for me to catch) and the also form social groups, they also secure territories and one group has created a warren with multiple adult rabbits. They prefer to eat near each other, I see them play with each other, work in the same warren, lay with each other, and they fight other rabbits as a group.

 

[Bunnylady]

But, you are feeding these rabbits, right? You are creating a concentration of a resource (food, and probably water) that is artificially elevating the carrying capacity of your yard/farm. Any rabbit that "disperses" from your place is not only risking increased predator pressure, but starvation, as well (there are reasons that North American wild rabbits are solitary, you know, and limited food sources is one of them). But there can only be so many areas of good cover or whatever within a reasonable distance from your feeding stations, so if these rabbits are going to survive there, they must form alliances, even though it is stressful, because constant "every rabbit for itself" fighting is even more stressful.

Successful animals adapt to changing conditions. Evidently, in the case of domesticated rabbits, adaptation to social living comes at the price of shorter average lifespans and more babies dying, apparently due to stress.

 

[The Moonshiner]

But, you are feeding these rabbits, right? You are creating a concentration of a resource (food, and probably water) that is artificially elevating the carrying capacity of your yard/farm. Any rabbit that "disperses" from your place is not only risking increased predator pressure, but starvation, as well (there are reasons that North American wild rabbits are solitary, you know, and limited food sources is one of them). But there can only be so many areas of good cover or whatever within a reasonable distance from your feeding stations, so if these rabbits are going to survive there, they must form alliances, even though it is stressful, because constant "every rabbit for itself" fighting is even more stressful.

Successful animals adapt to changing conditions. Evidently, in the case of domesticated rabbits, adaptation to social living comes at the price of shorter average lifespans and more babies dying, apparently due to stress.

No I dont feed them at all.
When I first started I put out hay bales. Then they would go in the barn for their own hay.
Now a few generations later they have no interest in hay they forage and eat grass.
Domestic rabbits are not descendants of our north American rabbits so they're not the same and shouldn't be compared.

 

[Bunnylady]

Domestic rabbits are not descendants of our north American rabbits so they're not the same and shouldn't be compared.

Well, DUH!

I'm not talking about the rabbits, I'm talking about the carrying capacity of the land and the quality and quantity of the available food sources. A ecosystem can only support so many animals, and since the domestic rabbit and the North American wild rabbits are small herbivores of a similar size and with similar feeding strategies, it is fair to say that an area can only support so many of either species. By mowing a lawn or a pasture or whatever kind of maintenance you do on your property, you create an artificial environment that supports the rabbits in greater numbers than the native vegetation could. Just by living there, you also discourage predators, and your buildings and what-have-you create cover that wouldn't be there naturally. Deliberately or not, you are creating the kind of resource concentration that the rabbits can only exploit by adapting their behavior to allow for being social - just like their wild (European) relatives have had to, in much of their current range.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Or just maybe they are social and when given the chance prefer it.
Mine have access to tons of land. Many areas have everything they need to survive.
Plenty of resources in other areas so if they wanted to be solitary it would be just as easy but that's not what they prefer.
Cage raising has limited their environment to such a small space that that is the reason most can't get along.
Give them the adequate space and you'll see the difference.

 

[Kessel23]

I have 75 acres of land for my "free range" rabbits and I do not provide any feed, shelter, or protection from predators. They have a warren on the edge of the woods built into brush piles and on the edge of a large field. You could argue that they concentrate to the brush pile to make warrens because it provides good shelter from predators, you could argue that it is the best spot because it is right next to a field and so all the rabbits concentrate to this one spot because it is the best and the other spots are to dangerous. The problem with this argument is I do not have just 1 brush pile on the edge of my fields, I have hundreds... I don't really see why all the rabbits would clump up under 1 brush pile when there is literally enough brush piles for each pair to have its own...

With the whole comparing to wild rabbits because they are both small herbivores that eat similar food thing... I disagree, cottontails are from a completely different genus than european rabbits and they have a completely different behavior. Just because two animals are similar in appearance and diet doesn't mean they have the same social structure or behavior. That would be like if I tried to argue African lions are solitary and only stay by other lions because it is the best environment around and we know this because in North America the Mountain lion is a solitary animal. Just because they are both large felines who hunt other animals and look similar to each other does not mean they have the same social structure, they live on different sides of the globe and have developed their own social structure over thousands of years, just because they happen to appear the same in several ways does not mean they are the same in all.
Other examples are new world vulture vs. old world vultures, American Mink vs European Mink, American Robin vs. Robin, and so on...