Who’s killing the Easter Bunny

Condon, of Crozet, is author of “The Nature-Friendly Garden.”

Soon Easter will be here. Smiling young children, no doubt, are eagerly looking forward to Easter morning.
If they have been good, they can expect to discover baskets full of sweets that were left by the beloved Easter Bunny.
But as the kids chomp down on their chocolate candy bunnies, they probably have no idea that the Easter Bunny’s real-life counterpart, the Eastern cottontail and many other species of rabbits, are disappearing from our landscape. These nonthreatening and lovable creatures are being killed off — not deliberately, but mindlessly.
Americans are so obsessed with manicured yards that no food or nesting spots exist around their homes to help rabbits and other wildlife to survive. Also guilty are the people in neighborhood homeowner associations who have such distaste for overgrown fields that they mow what are supposed to be “common natural areas” in their subdivisions.
Once upon a time, rabbits were common around houses in small towns and suburbs as well as in the country, but they are no longer wild animals that children (or anyone) can easily see. Indeed, rabbits may soon be as much a figment of the imagination as is Peter Cottontail hoppin’ down the bunny trail, Thumper, and the rabbit that Alice followed down the hole in her Wonderland adventures.
With so much prime grassland habitat being destroyed for houses and businesses, cleared for golf courses and plowed under for farmland, it is not surprising that many kinds of once-common wildlife are becoming scarce. Some of these animals are of particular interest to humans, such as butterfly species like the regal fritillary and numerous varieties of songbirds such as the Northern bobwhite and American woodcock. And as these animals disappear, the predators that feed upon them also disappear.
But a magician with his big black hat can’t bring back our adorable Eastern cottontails. The only way to save this species and others is for landowners to jump into action.
Huge, sterile yards around homes need to be replaced with more-natural landscaping. Allowing broadleaf “weeds” such as plantain to grow in lawns provides food for rabbits. Growing many kinds of nectar-producing flowers provides nourishment for numerous insects, such as butterflies. Letting flowers go to seed and leaving the stalks standing throughout the fall and winter assists birds and small mammals to survive the harshest time of the year.
In an out-of-the-way corner of the yard, a brush pile can be built so that a rabbit can make a nest at the bottom of it for her young. Letting another corner become a “wild” area of tall grasses and wildflowers will permit birds to gather nesting material and perhaps allow some kinds to actually nest there.
These practices can also be applied to businesses, golf courses and farms.
Twenty years ago, after I excitedly pointed out a wild bunny to my two young nieces, my sister-in-law asked, “Haven’t you ever seen a rabbit before?” She was amused that I could sound so thrilled to see one of these small creatures because rabbits were so easily viewed back then.
We can prevent wild rabbits from becoming nothing more than memories. If the Eastern cottontail becomes scarce, how will children understand the Beatrix Potter tales of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny or the story of Bambi and his friend Thumper?
Indeed, can the Easter Bunny exist if there are no real wild bunnies?