Here in New Zealand we have 2 kinds of rabbits: Domestic pet rabbits (that are often white and fluffy) and wild brown rabbits.
When you see a NZ wild brown rabbit running away from you, you will notice a flash of white with every bound they take.
No, it’s not a camera with a flash strapped to their behinds, it’s because their bum hair is bright white (in sharp contrast to my Uncle Bruce).
Surely this flash would make it easier for natural predators to kill them, such as Hawks and Leopards?
We all know that rabbits “breed like rabbits”, well maybe God made their bums white as a form of population control?
If that’s true, then why haven’t rabbits with white bums been all killed off and the ones with brown bums taken over?
There are 2 possiblities:
- Either natural selection is bullocks
- Or there are so few predators in NZ that the rabbits have no incentive to change (in fact, we have just 1 species of hawk and they are very small, and we sadly, have no leopards)
What do you reckon?
There is some kind of smartasstical remark in all this about rabbits defiantly mooning their predators, and the ironic and cruel mirth of the Gods. But I just can’t make it happen in my head, somehow.
I reckon they do not have enough predators, I shot most of the rabbits around my parents property a year later there is just as many.