Rabbit attacks snake (video) not graphic

[Atalanta]

Wow, people...

Let me first say that while I love both rabbits and snakes, I have more experience with the former than the latter.

I have several observations about this video:

1) This rabbit looks like a wild rabbit, not a domestic pet,
2) I did not see any babies (but this does not mean that they are not there),
3) This scene does not look staged - I cannot even imagine how someone could stage such a thing,
4) Having spent several years observing rabbit behavior (domestic and wild), I can say with some authority that this rabbit is not attacking, it is playing.

Why do I think this? First, when rabbits feel threatened and/or are being aggressive, they almost always skin back their ears. They will also frequently charge or lunge forward towards the threatening being, often grunting (not that you could hear a grunt over the idiot filmmaker's "commentary"); they then retreat, frozen, and stay away from the threat until the being comes at them or their young. This is true for both domestic and wild rabbits.

Secondly, when rabbits play, they do it in very characteristic ways, such as tossing objects (in this case, the poor snake!) up in the air, by doing vertical leaps (this is stupidly called a "binky" and is the ultimate indication of rabbit delight), and by making short, dancing-like hops around a small area, and by playing chase.

Clearly the snake was not pleased, and while I felt sorry for it, the rabbit does not appear to be trying to hurt the snake. They are intelligent animals that regularly engage in play, much like dogs and cats do.

The rabbit in this video is acting like my rabbits do when they are playing with their slinky. (Hop, toss, tease, binky, etc). It is not behaving like mine (or any I've seen) do when they are threatened.

And yes, rabbits can be very aggressive, especially when feeling frightened or protective. Who can blame them when just about everything preys upon them?! This is nature, just as it is nature's way for some snakes to eat rabbits - and we don't blame the snakes for preying on them, either.

I don't think this rabbit acted like it was (or its babies were) about to be eaten. I think it is having fun - albeit at the snake's expense, which is sad. But the snake seems to get away, hopefully uninjured.

 

[AviculariaLover]

Wow, yeah, now that I think about it... it does seem like the rabbit is playing with the snake, its behavior similar to what I've noticed in my rabbit. When she's angry she puts back her ears, grunts, and attacks with her front paws. Being mischevious, however, involves jumping and sniffing and nibbling and chasing. Imagine a cat chasing after a string, the tantalizingly swift wiggly movements of the snakes tail must have looked like fun. And the first approaches were simply out of curiousity, it kept coming back even though it got bitten, it just wanted to sniff and explore. That's like what happens with my rabbit and my cats, the rabbit would always approach them, even when she got swatted away (though being larger than the cats, the cats would usually run away).Though I agree it could be out of agression, it's hard to tell unless we ask the rabbit ourselves!

I've read all the posts, and face it, it's not staged. This guy saw a big snake in his backyard and thought he'd videotape it. "it's certainly being brave today", showing the guys observation that he's probably seen the snake before, and today he had a chance to see it sitting close to the house. We dont get to see how the rabbit gets there, but it's definitely a wild rabbit, theres no way either of them were placed there by the guy. Because if it was his snake, do you think he'd let it loose in the backyard, and *laugh* as the rabbit attacked it? There is no reason why we should doubt that there could be a rabbit and a snake in someones backyard, that point has already been driven into the ground at this point.

I found the video somewhat amusing just from the shock factor of seeing this prey-predator role reversal and lets face it, neither of them seemed to get seriously injured, neither ended up dead, though they both got bitten.

 

[Atalanta]

Another thing I don't see the rabbit in the video doing that most rabbits do when they are threatened, afraid, or angry is thump their back feet, hard. Both of mine reminded me of this when I used the vacuum-monster last night. They both stomped around for the duration. I was certainly amused, but they were not.

 

[Ewok]

hehe that snake sure got it! even if the video was staged, which it wasn't , the fact remains the rabbit chased off the snake, hence the point of the video. So I don't know what the debate is about:? ;P