A New Environmental Challenge for Seattle: RABBITS!

There is much talk in the Seattle media of invading hordes changing the nature of Seattle, with Amazon employees and homeless folks being the most frequently mentioned.

But the Seattle media has chosen to ignore an invasion that has become increasingly serious during the past year:

The appearance of huge numbers of bunnies around the city.

Cute, fluffy creatures that are eating their way through Seattle's vegetable gardens and lawns.

I bike to work each day along the Burke-Gilman trail.  Before this year I never saw bunnies...now I see at least a half dozen each morning.

Bunny in Seattle's Magnuson Park

One of my favorite activities is to run or walk through Magnuson Park with my little dog, Abby.  On Sunday, I counted 22 bunnies.   My dog is very excited to see the rabbits... but don't worry she is on a leash and can't give chase.

Rabbits are outside my house every morning, lazily munching on my lawn.  That's fine....less mowing for me.

But now they have gone too far....last week I found a fat bunny munching the lettuce in my vegetable garden.    I purchased plastic fencing to stop them to no avail....yesterday one snuck in through a small gap.   My lettuce was half eaten!

My vegetable garden after being visited by a hungry rabbit

I do worry that I am turning into a modern version of Elmer Fudd, hunting the hated Wabbit!  And if you remember from the cartoon, the Wabbit always won.

Early Sunday morning, driving out of my neighborhood, a rabbit dashed out in front of my car.  I was sure that I hit it, but miraculously it escaped.  I was shaken.

Some neighborhoods in Seattle have had rabbit issues before, such as the infestation around Greenlake circa 2005.   But one way or the other, the rabbit population waned.

And who could forget the Redmond/Microsoft bunny crisis of 1998, when nearly 1000 bunnies spread over the well-cared lawns of Microsoft and other Overlake businesses.   There was even a Redmond Rabbit Coalition.

But this time, here in Seattle, something is different.  Seattle's rabbit population is clearly growing exponentially to levels not seen before.  There are clearly thousands of bunnies.

But why?   Did a lot of people dump their pet rabbits in local parks?    The effects of global warming?  (I am waiting for someone on the Seattle City Council to suggest this, with a 10 million dollar program to deal with the issue)

 Has the local coyote population gotten lazy or decided they prefer fat pet cats who don't offer as much of a chase?  And what about our resident eagle population?  Not on the job.

Seattle coyotes appear to be lazy or now prefer cats

Well, I won't speculate any more....but those wabbits going into my vegetable garden better watch out!

from Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog https://ift.tt/2N7OdNS