4 ms·

This is us: https://xkcd.com/1871/ https://xkcd.com/1871/

by Finnucane 5y ago

oneoff786 5y ago
Boston does have a lot of good buns Randall also lives in MA I believe so yeah it’s also him
- nerdponx 5y ago
  The Boston North Shore suburbs seem to have so many more bunnies than other similar areas in the northeast. Different climate? Lack of predators? Better food?
  - 1970-01-01 5y ago
    They're not supposed to be there. They were introduced a hundred years ago and are competing with the native cotton tail. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_cottontail https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_cottontail
    - nerdponx 5y ago
      Interesting, I assumed they were the native cottontail! Is there a reliable way to tell them apart? Edit: Wikipedia says that they are morphologically almost identical. Is the species distinction just a matter of genetics at this point? Normally I am bothered by invasive species, but somehow this doesn't seem to be such a problem, if you literally can't tell them apart without molecular analysis or looking at minor differences in their skulls. I am aware that similar situations have happened with house sparrows and starlings, where they have so successfully outcompeted the natives that you would think they were the native dominant species. At least starlings are easy to identify and can't be confused with anything native, but I don't think I could tell apart the different sparrows.
      - sdenton4 5y ago
        Sparrows are easier to differentiate by their vocalizations (mostly). Many have a species-distinct opening to their song. Different species of sparrow also occupy different habitat, and fill somewhat different ecological niches. I'm less familiar with rabbit vocalizations. :)
        Finnucane 5y ago
        ehh, what's up, doc.
        oneoff786 5y ago
        They can honk a bit when excited or growl. Probably won’t see a wild rabbit doing any of that.
    - lovich 5y ago
      Rat extermination efforts have also removed a predator. When rats are abundant they will wipe out rabbits as they will enter their warrens and prey on the rabbit kits. I was in Somerville when they broke ground on the green line expansion which drove the rats that had been nesting in untouched government land for years into the neighborhood. Over the course of ~2 months we went from rabbits everywhere to them becoming locally extinct and having been replaced by rats
jmclnx 5y ago
Where I am, there were lots of buns, plus song birds. But 3 neighbors got cats and they let them out all the time, after 6 months the bunnies and song birds are now all gone. I wish NE would do what I heard New Zealand is now doing, forcing people to keep their cats indoors. But nice cartoon, I do not know how I missed it, I read xkcd daily.
- rory 5y ago
  Conversely, my neighborhood on Cape Cod is absolutely overrun by bunnies, to the point where we could probably use a few cats to keep things in balance. Things used to be more reasonable, but as more people started living here full time, it seems the foxes were pushed back out of the immediate neighborhood. Disturbingly, our dogs have a knack for finding nests and tossing around the baby bunnies, apparently without any intention to kill and eat them. They sound EXACTLY like squeak toys.

This is us: https://xkcd.com/1871/ https://xkcd.com/1871/

oneoff786 5y ago

Boston does have a lot of good buns Randall also lives in MA I believe so yeah it’s also him

nerdponx 5y ago
The Boston North Shore suburbs seem to have so many more bunnies than other similar areas in the northeast. Different climate? Lack of predators? Better food?
- 1970-01-01 5y ago
  They're not supposed to be there. They were introduced a hundred years ago and are competing with the native cotton tail. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_cottontail https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_cottontail
  - nerdponx 5y ago
    Interesting, I assumed they were the native cottontail! Is there a reliable way to tell them apart? Edit: Wikipedia says that they are morphologically almost identical. Is the species distinction just a matter of genetics at this point? Normally I am bothered by invasive species, but somehow this doesn't seem to be such a problem, if you literally can't tell them apart without molecular analysis or looking at minor differences in their skulls. I am aware that similar situations have happened with house sparrows and starlings, where they have so successfully outcompeted the natives that you would think they were the native dominant species. At least starlings are easy to identify and can't be confused with anything native, but I don't think I could tell apart the different sparrows.
    - sdenton4 5y ago
      Sparrows are easier to differentiate by their vocalizations (mostly). Many have a species-distinct opening to their song. Different species of sparrow also occupy different habitat, and fill somewhat different ecological niches. I'm less familiar with rabbit vocalizations. :)
      - Finnucane 5y ago
        ehh, what's up, doc.
      - oneoff786 5y ago
        They can honk a bit when excited or growl. Probably won’t see a wild rabbit doing any of that.
  - lovich 5y ago
    Rat extermination efforts have also removed a predator. When rats are abundant they will wipe out rabbits as they will enter their warrens and prey on the rabbit kits. I was in Somerville when they broke ground on the green line expansion which drove the rats that had been nesting in untouched government land for years into the neighborhood. Over the course of ~2 months we went from rabbits everywhere to them becoming locally extinct and having been replaced by rats

jmclnx 5y ago

Where I am, there were lots of buns, plus song birds. But 3 neighbors got cats and they let them out all the time, after 6 months the bunnies and song birds are now all gone. I wish NE would do what I heard New Zealand is now doing, forcing people to keep their cats indoors. But nice cartoon, I do not know how I missed it, I read xkcd daily.

rory 5y ago
Conversely, my neighborhood on Cape Cod is absolutely overrun by bunnies, to the point where we could probably use a few cats to keep things in balance. Things used to be more reasonable, but as more people started living here full time, it seems the foxes were pushed back out of the immediate neighborhood. Disturbingly, our dogs have a knack for finding nests and tossing around the baby bunnies, apparently without any intention to kill and eat them. They sound EXACTLY like squeak toys.