To say that I am an expert on rabbits would make me sound like a politician.  These days, nobody wants to sound like a politician – not even politicians!   

For countless millions of rabbits living on a golf course is the perfect environment.  A golf course is a man-made oasis for rabbits.  Millions of dollars are spent on fertilizer and irrigation to provide food and water in abundance to the cute little rabbit population.  People and maintenance equipment keep predators at a distance.  And rabbits thrive!  They do not fear humans like many wild creatures living in and around a golf course environment. 

In the wild, rabbits represent the bottom of the food chain.  In their daily hunt for food nearly every predator species is in a constant search for defenseless and naive young rabbits.  The list of predator animals that eat rabbits include bobcat, mink, coyote, fox, alligator, snake, skunk, raccoon, weasel, wolf, lynx, cat, dog, eagle, hawk and owl.  I am sure I have missed a few…. like large lizards mainly iguana in Central and South America.

To gauge the volume of this seemingly endless food supply created by the golf course rabbit population, let me share a few facts about rabbit reproduction.  Rabbits breed from spring to late summer.  The average Cottontail Rabbit has four to seven kittens (baby rabbits) born into each litter after a gestation period of just one month.  She will have three to five litters per year.  Most of the kittens are born in March, April and May. 

The kittens are blind and hairless at birth, they weigh about an ounce.  Look at your thumb, that is the size of a rabbit kitten at birth.  Within a week the kittens are fully furred and can wash themselves; in two weeks they have their eyes open.  Rabbit kittens grow extremely quickly feeding on the nourishing milk provided by their mothers.  At three weeks the kittens have stopped nursing and leave the nest to fend for themselves.  Never to return.  Momma rabbit kitten’s start breeding when they are two to three months old.  Imagine being a grandparent within five months after giving birth.

Momma often breeds while nursing her current litter, you do the math!!

Golf is a spectator sport…. but in reverse.  Not the animal population watching golfers top, shank, slice, three putt and cuss.  Golf becomes a spectator’s sport for golfers who observe the rabbit as they go about their everyday lives.  For the past seventy years I have been entertained by (and become an expert) on the bunny population.

As a nine-year-old while caring my small canvas bag, with a few sawed off wood-shafted clubs, across the prairies of western Kansas, I remember witnessing a large bull snake attempting to swallow a baby Jack Rabbit.  My friend, George, and I watched intently as the snake’s jaws expanded and body convulsed to eventually inhale the helpless bunny.  The discussion that followed was George explaining to me the food chain picture of life: A fish eating a smaller fish while it is being eaten by a larger fish.

Did you ever hear a rabbit scream?  Playing an MGA qualifier at Purple Hawk, my playing partner was going through a lengthy pre-putting ritual when I noticed a very young bunny nibbling the sweet green grass on the far side off the green.  The hypnotic trance was broken when a red-tailed hawk swooped down and snatched the kitten from the turf.  The volume of the scream emitted by the kitten was unreal.  The hawk sailed onto a leafless branch of an old oak tree.  Needless to say, the scream broke the routine of my partner and the lengthy pre-putt ritual started anew.  By the time I tapped in my two-footer the kitten had been reduced to bloody shreds.  The guts were eaten first.

Most people think of rabbits as cute and cuddly.  They are thought of as a very passive animal.  The next two tales involve rabbits as very aggressive when facing danger.

I must admit that I did not personally witness the Jack Rabbit fistfight that was relayed to me by two old farmer golfers from the prairie.  They explained that the bunnies were dancing and prancing on their hind legs as they plummeted each other with their front paws:  I have discovered several YouTube videos of Jack Rabbit’s fist-fighting.  The combat looks remarkably like two kangaroos fighting with boxing gloves in the center circus ring of my youth.

The last of this version of rabbit tales involves a rabbit and a rattle snake on another YouTube video on a golf course in eastern Colorado.  The aggressive bunny actually chases a rattle snake from the course by biting the snake on the tail.  We have all heard the saying, “as quick as a rattle snake”.  A rabbit, at least this particular rabbit, was quicker than a snake.

Sometimes the rabbit wins.  Sometimes the rabbit loses, remember Wille Coyote!