Just like rabbits...

When heavy winter snows collapsed a sports hall roof on 1,600 rabbits, the bunnies made the best of their situation. 

  • Just like rabbits...
    Children and animal lovers grimaced and feared the worst in the middle of February's heavy snowfalls when a sports hall roof in Nyköping collapsed in the middle of the night onto some 1,600 of the finest breeds of rabbits. Following up on that story, reports from Södemanlands Nyheter Södermanland News related that about one thousand of the prize animals were rescued, but it took over 30 hours to reach the place where they had hidden in the rubble and bitter freezing temperature. Sadly, some 30 perished...and probably many more because around a third had run off and have not been found to this date.

  • But there was more good news - or bad, depending on viewpoint - to come. The same newspaper reported on its web site that up to seventy baby rabbits had been born following the enforced mingling of the group. While awaiting rescue, the rabbits did...much like rabbits are expected to do...and the newborns began appearing late last month. To the dismay of owners, however, their purebred stock was drastically diluted into a hairy quilt work of browns, blacks, grays, whites and all mixtures in between. Dwarfs mated with longhairs, long ears mated with lion headed, ermine rabbits with lowly breeds, and the undeniable evidence of their undaunted exploits made the unplanned generation worthless for pedigree competitions.

  • No reports have yet been filed about those hundreds who escaped to freedom, but from those many rabbits who managed to survive the winter weather, elude predators and avoid traffic and hunters, local residents expect to see some strange and unusual hares and bunnies hopping around their hillsides in upcoming months.

  • resource: www.sn.se