Do Rabbits dig holes?

[phiferpharm]

I got something digging small holes everywhere. The holes are various sizes, the largest are 3-4 inches deep and conical in shape. Here is a picture, but I don't know if it is detailed enough to help.

 

[Mendonsy]

It is more likely to be skunks. They dig holes like that looking for grubs and moles.

 

[mikim]

armadillos dig like that for the same reason

 

[HarryN]

I say armadillos too!

 

[dusty3030]

Dillers x 3!

 

[KevT]

From the size and shape I agree plus it is the season for them around here. Look at all the road kill, Last month it was skunks, but whatever it is, it ISN"T a turtle!!! If you get my drift. Was working on some site clearing for a utility company around here and had to report finding 3 nests. It delayed the project 3 months (turtle wranglers don't seem to be in any hurry) and cost the Utility company $45,000 to have them relocated.

Huh, No Sir, I have not seen any turtles on my property in the 11 years I have lived here...

 

[Bird]

Doug, the answer to your question is "Yes"; rabbits do dig holes. But they dig them for a nest to have their babies or to dig under a fence, etc. So I agree with the other guys that the holes you found are not likely to be by rabbits.

When I was raising rabbits, I learned a number of things about them that I never knew before and suspect many do not know. Rabbits are among the world's worst mothers. They do not pick up a baby to move it as dogs, cats, and many other mammals do. If a baby gets out of the nest, it'll die unless a human saves it. So the wild rabbits have their litter in a hole in which a baby that starts to climb out, will roll back to the bottom with the others. A mother rabbit has 8 teats, so if she has a litter of more than 8, some will die from lack of nursing. I always tried to have at least 2, and preferably more, does have litters about the same time, so if one had more than 8, I could move some of them to another doe with fewer than 8.

 

[FentonFarmer]

Hello,
the title of this thread here in Australia would be similiar to someone asking if a bear visits the woods for their ablutions (family friendly version). Rabbits will dig small scrapes like that to access the sweeter roots of the plants. When they burrow the tunnel tends to be more steep sided and obviously deeper. Here they will sometimes dig an exploratory hole about 6 inches then move on, maybe looking for softer soil.

Assuming your rabbits are like our southern ones they should be out grazing just on dawn and dusk, so if you do spot them they may well be the culprits. That's when we try for them with the .22 or air rifle. Spotlighting after dark works well also, but cannot remember the legalities of this in the states.

On an aside dropped my little man off at kindergarten the other morning. Someone had bought 5 albino rabbits for the kids to experience. My little man, " They'd be easier to shoot at night Dad!" Cue mortified looks from surrounding hippy mothers. Rural life versus town life moment at its best.

Good luck with you quest. If it is rabbits try to get onto the population early as they will live up to their reputation for breeding. For us every 7-9 rabbits means one less sheep in the paddock. Given one pair can become hundreds in a year we like to keep on them.

All the best,
BR

 

[Pixguy]

Yes, rabbits do dig holes for their young and this proof in my lawn in SW Florida about 6 weeks ago. Two young bunnies that unfortunately didn't make because mom never returned during the day due to our 50lb dog.




I also had my front lawn dug with about 20-30 holes just like yours and it was Dillos. Killed the grubs and eliminated the holes.

 

[Bird]

Spotlighting after dark works well also

Riding on a front fender of a 1946 Chevrolet through pastures at night with a .12 gauge shotgun worked pretty well, and it was even better a few years later when a buddy and I both had convertibles; one would drive while the other stood up to shoot over the windshield. When I was growing up, we ate every rabbit we could find.

 

[/pine]

Riding on a front fender of a 1946 Chevrolet through pastures at night with a .12 gauge shotgun worked pretty well, and it was even better a few years later when a buddy and I both had convertibles; one would drive while the other stood up to shoot over the windshield. When I was growing up, we ate every rabbit we could find.

A buddy of mine once had a 30' Hatteras sport fisherman...we used to shoot flying fish from the flying bridge (when cruising they would come out of the water ahead of the vessel)...mostly used a 410 to keep it interesting...it was a riot...!

Interesting info on rabbits...

 

[phiferpharm]

Thanks guys, I'm buying the Armadillos as the most likely - I've seen them all around here and as road kill. Never seen any skunks, so I hope that's not what it is. My guess on the rabbits were the dozen of them on my driveway/lawn when I came in last night.


As for Turtles, well, no comment........really no comment

 

[/pine]

I've seen them all around here and as road kill.

Armadillos...when they are dead on the side of the road...we call them "possum on the half shell"...!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I've seen baby rabbits in a nest in a hole like that.

 

[EddieWalker]

Best time to kill armadillos is the middle of the night. I've only see a few in over a decade out before it was dark out, but when I'm on my tractor mowing late at night, I see them all the time. Easy targets from the tractor with a pistol!!! I know some little old ladies who pull out the shotgun to kill them after they have tore up their gardens!!!

Eddie

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Riding on a front fender of a 1946 Chevrolet through pastures at night with a .12 gauge shotgun worked pretty well, and it was even better a few years later when a buddy and I both had convertibles; one would drive while the other stood up to shoot over the windshield. When I was growing up, we ate every rabbit we could find.

Sounds like you and I went to different schools together. I...as my Father would say...killed a "wagon load" of rabbits with my little single shot .22, at night, from the passenger side window of my Dad's 1949 Packard. Now we wouldn't eat a jack rabbit though, unless it was a young one. We also put away a lot of squirrels, quail, ducks and channel cats.

 

[Bird]

I got a Remington bolt action single shot .22 when I was 10 years old, and a double barreled 12 gauge the next year, but never used the .22 at night. I did prefer shooting squirrels & rabbits with the .22 instead of the shotgun because it was less lead to clean out. I shot quite a few squirrels and rabbits, but only two ducks in my life; one with the 12 gauge and one with a 410. My Dad liked quail hunting, but I've only shot one quail and one dove; not enough meat to be worth the shotgun shell. But we did eat every jackrabbit we got, too. Young ones were good fried; the old ones got cooked in the pressure cooker, boned, and the meat ground up. The ground meat was good in gravy on biscuits or for sandwiches made the same as chicken salad.

My paternal grandmother said she'd never eat another jackrabbit or any other rabbit because when they were married they didn't have much and my grandfather shot lots of jackrabbits and she made them into canned sausage. So she said she had enough jackrabbit sausage their first year or two that she'd never eat anymore rabbit.:laughing:

 

[Looking4new]

Jacking rabbits or any other animal at night is very ilegal up here. I'm not saying it isn't done, just very ilegal and jacking them from a vehicle is worse. I catch them in my headlights and stop, they stop too and I go around on the outside of the headlight beam and grab them by the ears and off them. That is legal, more or less. No firearms firing at night, no firearms in the vehicle, period.

 

[McREBEL]

It looks like the detective work has been done, but I will add, that hole looks very much like the ones the armadillos make in my yard. I guess the dog just watches them work. Nighttime, a little patience and a 12 guage will eventually make them stop.

 

[Bird]

Jacking rabbits or any other animal at night is very ilegal up here. I'm not saying it isn't done, just very ilegal and jacking them from a vehicle is worse. I catch them in my headlights and stop, they stop too and I go around on the outside of the headlight beam and grab them by the ears and off them. That is legal, more or less. No firearms firing at night, no firearms in the vehicle, period.

It's been so long since I did any hunting at all that I have no idea what the current laws are, but in the past, when I hunted, it was illegal to discharge a firearm on, along, or across any public road, but there were no restrictions, no season, etc. on rabbits, so shooting them at night and/or from a vehicle on private property was not illegal.