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Bunny Roundabout
- enneff 4y agoFwiw for anyone who wants to feed some bunnies, leafy greens are better for them than carrots. Give them a big bunch of parsley and they’ll love you forever.
- flir 4y agoDarker the better, in my experience. They'll bite off your arm for some cavolo nero.
- bregma 4y agoTime for Brother Maynard to fetch the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.
- 0daystock 4y agoDarker greens should be used sparingly with rabbits, because of the high calcium and oxalate content. Cilantro, parsley, basil, any lettuce except iceberg are all solid choices for keeping buns healthy, shiny and happy.
- flir 4y agoI'm certain this is solid advice, hindgut fermenters live on a knife edge.
- dmurray 4y agoRabbits like carrot leaves, not the part of the carrot we eat. The stereotype of Bugs Bunny munching on the end of a carrot comes from farmers complaining about rabbits destroying their carrots. Cartoonists misinterpreted this either accidentally or intentionally for better visuals. (Humans can eat carrot greens too, though most people find other leafy vegetables tastier and easier to prepare).
- pooper 4y ago> Rabbits like carrot leaves, not the part of the carrot we eat. I took care of a pair of rabbits for a bit as a child. As relatively poor people, I couldn't afford to feed the rabbits actual carrots. I remember feeling amused at how the rabbits would (seemingly gladly) eat the green leaves of carrots (something we threw away) and not complain. I feel better about not being able to feed them actual carrots. Thank you for the trip down memory lane. It is amazing how much we actually remember but never think about...
- ejolto 4y agoMy father also grew up poor with rabbits. They would feed the rabbits things they would otherwise throw away, like carrot leaves and potato peels. Then they would eat the rabbits. Great way to turn inedible plants into edible protein.
- dllthomas 4y agoYour basic point holds, but carrot leaves and potato peels are both perfectly edible.
- Sohcahtoa82 4y agoAlso, potato peels are delicious. I don't peel my potatoes before making mashed potatoes or french fries, and they're tastier for it.
- ejolto 4y agoTrue! I eat them, but for some reason my grandmother refused to, so they gave them to the rabbits instead.
- BeFlatXIII 4y agoThat and the carrot looked like chomping a cigar.
- dale_glass 4y ago
- aitchnyu 4y agoFunny how a 1930s tribute to Mel Blanc's mannerism still make people think carrots are good for rabbits.
- egypturnash 4y agoIIRC Blanc actually hated carrots, they kept a trash can next to him in the recording studio so he could immediately spit it out after a take involving a carrot crunch was done.
- 0daystock 4y agoFresh hay would be better still. Healthy rabbit diet should consist of 85-90% hay, some greens and fruit/sweets extremely sparingly.
- Ancapistani 4y agoMy family has two rabbits (mini lops) in a large divided hutch on our pack patio. They each get a fist-sized portion of greens every day - parsley, cilantro, kale, etc. depending on what's on sale at the grocery store or about to be thrown out. There's also a "treat" hidden in there somewhere. Sometimes that's a small baby carrot, sometimes it's a blackberry or raspberry, sometimes a piece of watermelon. In addition to the above, they always have access to pellets, timothy hay, and water. If it's not wet out, we put them out in ~6' circular mesh pens to play for at least an hour each day. They seem pretty happy with their lives, and are neither gaining nor losing weight. It's a far cry from the wire cages in an outbuilding where they spent the first couple of years of their lives for sure.
- zenexer 4y agoIsn’t kale one of the few greens rabbits aren’t supposed to eat?
- Ancapistani 4y agoIt's super high in calcium, which can be a big problem. We're usually feeding 3-4 different kinds of greens in each serving, though, and hay makes up the majority of their diet anyhow.
- Maursault 4y agoNo. You fees rabbits timothy hay and alfalfa. These are the staples of a healthy rabbit's diet. Anything else, greens, carrots, banana, strawberry, are treats not food. Too much treats causes diarrhea, which can be fatal due to dehydration.
- JadeNB 4y agoOf course, complaints about what's on topic at HN always have the same, correct answer—it's on topic at HN if it's of interest to hackers, whether or not it's about hacking. All the same, while I understand that blog entries don't have to be about anything in particular, I am curious about what made this worth surfacing here. There's a roundabout with some bunnies, people are feeding them, and it's not really clear who but no-one seems to mind—is there some significance to the story I'm missing, or was it just a pleasant bit of news?
- capableweb 4y agoI didn't personally upvote it, but I'm happy I saw it, as it was "just a pleasant bit of news" for me and the part about the "drive-by carroting" made me smile. Also I learned that Aberdeen sees itself as the "Energy Capital of Europe" while I've never heard about the place before, and I've been around in Europe a lot in my years :)
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoIt's the base for a lot of North Sea Oil and Gas companies, due to its location, which probably gives it some claim to the title, as any other contender closer to the center of europe would probably need to share access with other localities, while being on the extreme end concentrates things (while also making it kind of irrelevant if you're not involved in north sea oil or gas). Randomly googled map to demonstrate: https://thoughtcontrolscotland.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/20170909_brm881.png https://thoughtcontrolscotland.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/2...
- andybak 4y agoI tend to upvote the occasional post such as this for the simple reason that I sometimes just like to increase the diversity of content. In this case I think this also has the potential for some very HN-ish dicussion. Rabbits and foxes is a classic CS topic after all! Ecology and population dynamics leads to some interesting maths. Plus - bunnies.
- BeefWellington 4y ago
- CamperBob2 4y agoActchewally, carrots aren't great for rabbits. Too high in carbs. Better to toss them a good grade of organic romaine lettuce.
- capableweb 4y agoCarrots are great for rabbits! Just not the same part that humans like, but the other part that we usually throw away.
- quickthrower2 4y agoSounds like rabbits need a similar diet to guinea pigs them.
- oneeyedpigeon 4y agoThey should reduce the speed limit on that roundabout. Actually, they should reduce the speed limit on all roundabouts...
- capableweb 4y agoSeems to be big enough to handle 30-40 km/h, but hard to judge from just the pictures. Obviously depending on the amount of traffic, the suitable speed might be lower/higher. Is the speed limit higher than that?
- oneeyedpigeon 4y agoI just meant for safety reasons. Not just for the rabbits themselves — although I DO care about them! — but also for drivers who may be distracted by a rabbit suddenly running across the road. The actual speed limit on that roundabout is an interesting issue! It's debatable, but the most accurate 'guidance' I can find is that it should be the speed of the majority of the approach roads — how you're supposed to work that out, sat in your own approach road, I don't know. The one in question is almost certainly 30-40 mph, which is about 50-65 km/h. In theory, some roundabouts have a 70mph speed limit, although they'll be very different from the one in question. Disclaimer: UK driver, detest roundabouts.
- dairylee 4y agoSeems like it would be a pointless expense having to post new speed limit signage on the entrance and exit when (well designed) roundabouts naturally cause cars to slow to appropriate speeds. A distracted driver is going to cause an accident no matter the speed limit. Disclaimer: UK driver, love roundabouts.
- eptcyka 4y agoDistracted drivers don't notice speed limit signs anyway. They'll do 25mph in 20, 30 and 40 mph roads.
- 4y ago
- gadders 4y agoI heard a (possibly apocryphal) story about traders at a London brokers releasing rabbits into the rooftop garden. People would look up in the atrium and see rabbits spread-eagled against the skylights, sun bathing.
- Reason077 4y agoThat’s a very tidy and well-maintained looking roundabout by UK standards. Down south they are typically severely overgrown with weeds and covered in thick layers of litter and other debris. Well done, Aberdeen!
- wanda 4y agoAnd no visible drunkard! Take heed, Yorkshire!
- rob74 4y agoSeems counterintuitive at first that rabbits should choose a roundabout as a place to live, but if you think about it, they're less likely to be disturbed by people, dogs etc. there than somewhere else. I don't know how far rabbits move away from their burrow, but as long as they don't have to do it to get food or to evade predators, I guess they prefer to stick pretty close to it, and the road probably isn't that inviting, which explains why they haven't been (all) run over by cars yet...
- oneeyedpigeon 4y agoAnd they're often raised — rabbits love hills!
- Sharlin 4y agoSimilarly, in Finland there are some black-headed gull colonies that have chosen to live and nest in rail yards. The birds don’t seem to mind the freight trains passing by – or even literally over their heads – but apparently their predators and egg thieves are less comfortable with big noisy human things moving around.
- sidewndr46 4y agoI was driving near the border of Northern New Mexico and Texas recently on a state highway. I kept noticing groundhogs everywhere. Almost all the land is farmland out there. So I imagine it is plowed every year or so. The only strip of land is undisturbed is the right of way between the edge of the road & the fence. So groundhog colonies are basically all along the side of the road. Edit: as pointed out below it's actually "Cynomys ludovicianus" or the Black-tailed prairie dog.
- pavon 4y agoIn that part of the country they would likely have been prairie dogs. And yes, they live sparsely all throughout the desert, but cluster more densely on the edges of cultivated land where there is more food.
- 4y ago
- Symbiote 4y agoIt's Garthdee Roundabout, here on Streetview: https://www.google.com/maps/@57.1235518,-2.1213832,3a,75y,318.1h,96.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7Ohnmb7p4aO-ltIQBRyMZg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@57.1235518,-2.1213832,3a,75y,31...
- DownGoat 4y agoCan even see them here https://www.google.com/maps/@57.1237885,-2.1221885,3a,62.7y,75.1h,75.16t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sYdbwXErbglV3Hzruvk_jiw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@57.1237885,-2.1221885,3a,62.7y,...
- mleo 4y agoThere is a bunny that spends time among our house and small set of neighbors for the past 2 years. Impressive that it has lived this long. We replaced grass with turf last fall and it disappeared for a while. I have seen it on the turf more recently again. I was surprised one day when looking in that area of yard and seeing how much poo it has left on the turf.
- 0daystock 4y agoRabbits are incredible pets, not least of which is because they leave virtually odor-free (being herbivores) droppings which can be collected and spread through the garden as compost/fertilizer. Our family of buns actually produces so much we have to give away garbage bags full of their product on craigslist to happy local farmers. Plus they don't make noise and have big personalities! I think they are excellent companions for adults. Not so much for kids, though.
- mrlonglong 4y agoAt least there's somewhere to get food if civilisation collapses!
- reaperducer 4y agoAlso check large tree planters in front of skyscrapers. The Aon Center, and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois tower in Chicago are notorious for harboring dozens and dozens of rabbits.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- 0daystock 4y agoThe problem originates with people releasing domesticated rabbits into the wild when they decide they no longer wish to care for them as pets. Unfortunately, this is almost always a death sentence for the creature which won't understand how to survive in the wild, lacks camouflage and will likely get picked off by a predator within several days. If you've ever taken a walk through Discovery Park near Seattle, you'll see a similar spectacle. Please, if you ever think about doing this, stop and bring the animal to a shelter, or try to re-home them yourself instead.
- Steltek 4y agoThat seems like a very locale specific explanation. In Boston, rabbits are prolific, even with a very robust predator population. Our local rabbits also appear to have pretty good instincts and decent woodsy camouflage, not your bright white pet bunnies.
- ianai 4y agoAny animal raised and cared for closely by humans is going to be unprepared for that. It’s cruel.
- Steltek 4y agoMy point was that the majority of rabbits around me appear to be born wild, not released or escaped. In spite of the numerous coyotes, hawks, etc, you'll find plenty of them, year after year, like squirrels or chipmunks. 0daystock was making an absolute statement as if dozens of people in my neighborhood are releasing rabbits every year. That may be the case in some areas but I doubt it holds here.
- Zircom 4y agoEh, cats usually adapt pretty well when transitioning from house cat -> stray cat, but they're probably an outlier as they're predators themselves.
- 4y ago
- swader999 4y agoNow that's what I'd call a hare pin.
- aluminum96 4y agoI suspect the rabbits chose to take up residence inside the roundabout to avoid predators, who are probably unwilling to cross the busy traffic at most times of day.