The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals: A Book of Personal Observations

Take the state of Pennsylvania, and consider this list of the rabbit's mortal enemies: 450,000 well-armed men and boys, regularly licensed and diligently gunning throughout six weeks of the year, and actually killing each year about 3,500,000 rabbits! 200,000 farmers hunting on their own farms, without licenses. Predatory animals, such as dogs, cats, skunks, foxes and weasels. Predatory birds: hawks, eagles and owls. Destructive elements: forest fires, rain, snow and sleet. Now, is it not a wonder that any rabbits remain alive in Pennsylvania? But they are there. They refuse to be exterminated. Half of them annually outwit all their enemies--smart as they are; they avoid death by hunger and cold, and they go on breeding in defiance of wild men, beasts and birds. Is it not wonderful-- the mentality of the gray rabbit? Again we say--the wild animal must think or die. In recognizing man's protection and friendship, the rabbit is as quick on the draw as the gray squirrel. In our Zoological Park where we constantly kill hunting cats in order that our little wild neighbors, the rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks may live, the rabbits live literally in our midst. They hang around the Administration Building, rear and front, as if they owned it; and one evening at sunset I came near stepping out upon a pair that were roosting on the official door-mat on the porch. There are times when they seem annoyed by the passage of automobiles over the service road. To keep hungry rabbits from barking your young apple trees in midwinter, spend a dollar or two in buying two or three bushels of corn expressly for them.