May, 2013
 

Over the past couple of weeks we had a great time photographing cute wild European rabbits. It’s a common animal of the British countryside, nevertheless it is such a good feeling to spend some time close to them.
Our photographed family of rabbits had five adorable kittens with one of them being very brave and curious.

A typical wild rabbit day starts at dawn. Eating, grooming and playing continuous until about mid morning. Time around mid to late afternoon is spend for resting and sleeping in the most extensive burrow system called warren which is dug to a depth of 3 meters. But our brave kitten didn’t need a warren all the time - it had a favorite sleeping spot over ground. It was such a delight to watch how its eyelids were getting heavier and heavier and it slowly was falling asleep…

Kittens become active again in the early evening. Eating is on the top of the list. They would graze heavily and rapidly for roughly the first half hour, followed by about half an hour of more selective feeding.

Time after dinner is perfect for grooming.

Rabbits are very alert mammals. It’s not a surprise that they listen to every single sound by rotating their cute ears. Our kittens were always alerted by a call of a magpie or a noise of an air plane crossing the sky. It used to take just a glimpse of a second for them to disappear inside the burrows.

A maze of interconnecting tunnels served superbly as a hiding place. They would trick us by disappearing in one burrow and appearing in the other.

Rabbits may live over two years in the wild, but when predators are numerous and weather conditions are extreme, they seldom live up to a year. Hopefully our rabbits will be the lucky ones.