A young wild Cottontail Rabbit died in the Backyard and I was privileged to share its final hours. When one spends a lot of time with wild animals it is hard not to find inspiration in the dignity and stoicism they display in the face of severe injury or death. This rabbit had a one-eyed sibling that is was very close to - they and their family are shown in happier times toward the end of this video. The events shown in this video happened over approximately two hours. These rabbits are relatively rare Appalachian Cottontails and live at near 4000 feet elevation in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.
To address some common comments - most viewers watch less than 3 minutes of the video according to YT stats. If you watch it all you will see the rabbit was capable of leaving me at any time and did so after about 10 minutes real-time. It was when I came back to check on him that it was obvious the rabbit was terminally ill. These rabbits are very habituated to humans over many generations and just like the squirrels of the Backyard the human element of constant presence and feeding becomes part of their ecology so they have no fear of humans who behave in a consistent familiar friendly way. This rabbit and I were well acquainted. However, they remain wild animals and if one were to suddenly behave differently and try to grab and hold them and put them in a box etc. they would experience extreme stress and scratch, kick and try and bite with every ounce of remaining energy to avoid being captured. Thus taking a wild animal like this rabbit to a vet that is far away was never really a consideration due to the stress - although it would have been nice to give it a shot to put it to sleep faster. This particular rabbit was born in spring 2016 and died last October 2016 it was very cold and windy that day. It had a sibling with only one eye that it seemed to have a special bond with. They are shown in happier times at the end of the video.
