Rabbit

We have now passed into the Moon of Drama and my totem for this Moon is the Rabbit.  I was a bit disappointed with Rabbit when I first got it.  My Medicine Cards book describes Rabbit as being all about Fear and that is not neccessarily easy to see as a positive thing!  Rabbit has many aspects though and this is the aspect focused on for the cards in order to lend a balance to the deck as a whole.  Mind you, Fear is not the problem to me that it once was either.

Rabbit is the Fear Caller, because Rabbit fears everything and what it fears it calls to it.  Birds of prey, disease, snakes, traps, foxes, everything eats and kills Rabbit.  Whenever you see a Rabbit chances are it is terrified, if it isn't, it is only ever one breath away from terror.  Having passed the Spider Gate earlier this year, I think my views on Fear have changed.  But there is a power here too - Rabbit sustains everything else and it's fear helps keep it safe.  Despite all the difficulties they face, Rabbits thrive....

The European Rabbit is native to Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Algeiria where it is the staple food of the Iberian Lynx and Spanish Imperial Eagle.  Unfortunately it is in decline there due to introduced diseases, habitat loss and hunting.  This is having a huge impact on it's predators.

Rabbits however are doing very well everywhere else. They have been introduced everywhere except Antartica and sub-Saharan Africa.  They were first introduced to Britain by the Romans as a source of food and it is hard to imagine this country without them.  I imagine that Hares were much more common before Rabbits were introduced.  Their introduction displaces native Rabbits and Hares and in Australia, the Bilby.  In Australia they have caused huge issues because they have no predator there.

This situation has resulted in the use of biological control to try and prevent their increase.  Firstly Myxomatosis and then rabbit haemorhagic disease.  Populations are partially resistant to Myxomatosis now and although there are frequent times when the viruses are present, they do not kill every rabbit now.  However at work, if ever we see a rabbit with these diseases, we will try and kill it.  The suffering they cause is immense.

Rabbits live in warrens with a group of between 2 and 10 rabbits.  Rabbits are agressive and territorial towards each other and this helps to ensure their survival.  Females are more territorial but do not defend their territory, instead they leave dung piles and the potency of these pellets shows their dominance.  Females will move into neighbouring territories when they mature but male rabbits will move further and have to fight for females.

High status rabbits are polygamus with one male having more than one female but lower status rabbits, both males and females are monogamous.  Male status is defined by quite a few factors, how many females visit his territory, how far he travels each day, how much time he spends resting with females and how many warrens he visits.  Females will indicate they are fertile by chinning objects in their territory, covering them with scent from glands in their chin.

Maleswill fight and often injure each other and sometimes even kill.  They kick with their strong hind legs, bite and scratch.  They also squirt urine which enrages their opponent.

So much for the imge of cute, peaceable rabbits!

OK, so they do eat grass...  They are most active at dawn and dusk but are out and about during the day and at night.  They browse and graze and eat a wide range of vegetation along with their grass.  They like mixed habitats best as these give them some cover as well as grazing.

They are incredibly fertile and gestation is only 31 days with them becoming fertile again straight away.  They also ovulate when they have sex so there is no time they are not fertile.  A female can be pregnant constantly for 8 months and produce 30 - 40 offspring a year.  The female is the only one that feeds them, returning once a day for four weeks.  They are born blind and furless.  The female marks the nesting burrow to deter others from going in.  Male rabbits do have some sort of hierarchical investment in their young though.

Rabbits have been kept for food, killed as pests and kept as pets.  There are a huge number of breeds.  Some are used for their fur and the Angora is unusual in that it's fur is used for yarn and they naturally moult.  I have never been convinced that they make interesting pets but a friend had a house rabbit once and the stories he tells suggest that rabbit brought up right and trained can be very different.

I like to think of this moon as being all about getting it out and keeping it in, emotionally and finding the balance between the two.  Rabbits definately are good at getting it out - their aggression and fear are plain for everyone to see and everyone can tell they are amorous *laugh*.  They emotions make them resilient and tough as well as making them a source of creativity for nature as a whole.  Endlessly fertile, but potentially highly destructive in their fertility!....

Rabbits are warriors.  They deal with their fear and survive.  They fight when they need to.