rabbits

Early this morning, John Hawkinson tweeted:

Just saw a rabbit in Mid-Cambridge 20' off Mass Ave. When did this start?

Quite awhile ago, according to our go-to guy for matters Cantabrigian, Robert Winters:

There were rabbits sighted this past year off Harvard Street between Trowbridge & Ellery Sts. They're around.

Nat Tarbox adds:

Walk around the river path near Harvard, there is a rabbit every ten feet.

Kathy C reports:

last summer, cute bunnies in weedy parking lot at Mass Ave and Albany.

Siobhan Gallagher cautions:

Look closely at them. Don't think they're our cottontails but, rather, an invasive breed.

A concerned roadrunner sends up a flare from Fairmount Hill in Hyde Park:

There are coyotes all over the place up here.

Illustrating the complaint is a high-quality photo of an eviscerated rabbit.

Mike Ball is astonished to read in the New York Times that "the increasingly rare New England cottontail rabbit" can only be glimpsed in tangled thickets. Astonished because a family of cottontails are regular visitors to his front yard in Hyde Park's Fairmount Hill:

A family of them has an odd attraction to our newspapers. When I got out a 5:30 or 6 a.m., I sometimes see one or two or three of them nosing about our papers. So far, they haven't opened the plastic bags or shown us their favorite sections. I assume the oddity of two or three of the parcels tossed at the base of the sidewalk that attracts them. Perhaps they wonder if there is food involved.

Regardless, when I trot the 50 or so feet, they do notice me and hop slowly out of reach. They aren't in any hurry though.

Well ...

Our resident wildlife expert, Jef Taylor, explains:

Boston bunnies are almost all Eastern Cottontails. NE cottontails are different species, found out in the sticks.

Coming home from downtown tonight, we saw a rabbit dart across the Jamaicaway (Arborway? Centre Street?) by the Poor Clare Nuns. The thing is, it had the light! Who knew they knew how to press the pedestrian-crossing button?

Miss Diana writes she is enjoying her new apartment in East Boston, but then reports:

... Last night, we were walking home and as we passed an alley way, I noticed a strange thing -- two bunnies, two white bunnies. These were not rabbits that were supposed to be there. We rushed home and grabbed a box, flashlight and some water. We were able to move one, but the other was in bad shape. As we examined the damage, blood on the sidewalk, a man came by saying his son had seen some rabbits here. He took our flashlight to check the rabbit's pupils and told us some horrible tales of some man in East Boston that used to eat rabbits. ...