I live in a small city in the US, where it’s grass everywhere. There’s lots of rabbits, but why aren’t there more? They eat grass, and there’s clearly more grass than they can eat at their current population size. There’s no significant predators to speak of, I don’t think. They breed legendarily quickly, there’s even an expression about it. So if food isn’t a constraint, predators aren’t a constraint, what is the constraint? I would think they should just increase population until we don’t have to cut our grass anymore.
In: Biology
1. Wild rabbits are brown and can camoflauge easily. Rabbits also create complex underground warrens so they can hide from predators.
2. Rabbits are most active at dawn and dusk. You may not see them at other times.
3. I don’t know if this is the case in the US, but in Australia they have previously released deadly viruses out in order to kill the wild rabbit populations. This can also kill domesticated rabbits, especially those that are not vaccinated.
4. Predators – anything from cats, foxes, birds, dogs, and even other omnivorous animals.
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