Bunny (Eastern Cottontail Rabbit) in a Grassy Lawn

In Albums: bunnies

Photo of a rabbit, standing upright and facing to the left, in a lawn with mostly grass and a few other plants

May 20th, 2007, by Alex Zorach

This is a bunny or rabbit (I prefer the highly technical term bunny myself) that I photographed in a grassy lawn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Note that this lawn shows other plants visible interspersed throughout the grass. These other plants provide food for the rabbits.

Here in the eastern part of the U.S., the common lawn rabbits are eastern cottontail rabbits, Sylvilagus floridanus. These rabbits do very well in suburban areas; some people consider them to be a pest. I rarely have problems with them. Yes, they do eat some plants in your garden, but if you plant enough different types of things, and leave enough areas as intact wild ecosystem, they will tend to leave most things in your garden alone. Wild ecosystems also support foxes, hawks, owls, and other predators which help keep the rabbit population under control.