Hey, there! Log in / Register

Citizen complaint of the day: Rabbits multiplying like rabbits at Chinatown onramp

Rabbit in the snow in Chinatown

A concerned citizen files a complaint about all the rabbits where Albany Street, I-93 and the turnpike come together:

Counted at least 15 rabbits while waiting in traffic for the light. Also one dead. One was crawling on cinder block close to cars. They can be found on the grassy area after leaving tunnel

Neighborhoods: 
Free tagging: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

Where is the complaint in this report? Is it implied that rabbits need to be extirpated from the city?

up
Voting closed 0

I have no idea where this was taken or with what camera, but it looks like it's the surface of Mars.

Also....they're rabbits. They....you know.....like rabbits. It's what they do.

up
Voting closed 0

Are even worse. Before they got out of hand, Mars was green.

up
Voting closed 0

The rabbit population explosion has been going on for a couple of years now.

up
Voting closed 0

the coyotes and Hawks are right behind em. It goes in cycles. Once the predators decimate the bunnies in the area they move on to the next bunny explosion.

up
Voting closed 0

I hope they don't adopt the habbits of the mystic river rabbits. When I ride the river trails (including last night) it is rare that at least one doesn't jump in front of my bike and hop along ahead of me, chasing the headlight beam.

Wouldn't work with the cars!

I suspect that this location is relatively predator free, so they eat and breed.

up
Voting closed 0

So what. There are rabbits. There are squirrels. There are pigeons. There are hawks. There are the glorious humping trash pandas of South Boston. Welcome to the world of adaptable wildlife.

I had never seen a deer until I was 20 and it was all the way out on the NY state line. Same thing with turkeys. I took a picture of one out in Sheffield or Great Barrington back in 1995 because I had never seen one. Now they apparently have sent most residents of Brookline into panic. I have enough deer walking through my yard now that I half expect them to ask me if they can play whiffle ball in between destroying my hosta.

Relax, the rabbits found a habitat that some MassDOT worker hasn't figured out to illegally park their personal car on yet. Let the bunny be a bunny.

up
Voting closed 0

Because there are fewer feral cats? When the feral cats I knew disappeared from my neighborhood, the bunnies took over. I'm not saying we should have feral cats again. I'm fond of the bunnies and I don't have a garden.

up
Voting closed 0

Reminds me of the crowds of rabbits I used to see alongside the runways of Charles de Gaulle airport: not where I expected to find them thriving.

What exactly does the complainer want to the city to do? Make them into hasenpfeffer? Relocate them to a safer place?

up
Voting closed 0

Runway rabbits are actually a problem: They attract runway birds of prey.

up
Voting closed 0

n/t

up
Voting closed 0

Hawks are amazing birds... and they eat ratswgich is a good thing. What's your problem with hawks?

up
Voting closed 0

maybe he's referring to the potential of birds near or at an airport getting sucked into airplane jet engines. You know, the Sully thing.

up
Voting closed 1

near airports, and I agree that that's his point.

I know that CdG has a dozen staffers and a lot of electronic scarecrows dedicated to trying to shoo birds away from the runways, some attracted by a potential rabbit tartare lunch. They view the tens of thousands of rabbits as less of a problem, but still have two gamekeepers and allow regular rabbit hunts to try to keep the bunny population in check. They're more concerned about burrows undermining runway integrity, and lighting cables getting chewed through.

Maybe that's the Lapine Menace that the complainer is worried about: a couple of dozen rabbits bringing down one of the supports to the overhead highway there.

up
Voting closed 1

It's the bird-strike problem that others have mentioned in replies, yes. I once watched a single bald eagle shut down a small airport's runways as it feasted on rabbit. They had to go shoo it away before they were safe to take more landings.

In this case it might have been extra caution because bald eagles are an endangered species. :-)

up
Voting closed 1

What exactly does the complainer want to the city to do?

The answer should be obvious:

up
Voting closed 0

tell me about the rabbits, George.

up
Voting closed 0

Boston Bunnies!

up
Voting closed 0

I commute through the same area.

This past year, there has been a definite uptick in the rabbit population. At the same time, there have been less rats.

My two comments would be:
a: rabbits are better than rats, whatever the cause of the population shift
b: on the odd chance that the rabbits directly did away with the rats, I'd take that as an indication that one shouldn't mess with them.

up
Voting closed 2

up
Voting closed 1

Silly Wabbits...

up
Voting closed 0

up
Voting closed 0

Hey that's me!

up
Voting closed 0

I will start handing out snares to the hungry panhandlers at the Mass Ave / Melnea Cass intersection.

up
Voting closed 0

They will sell them to motorists?

up
Voting closed 0