Rabbits or bunnies are our little friends that many of us prefer to keep as pets for their easy maintenance and cute, furry presence in our lives.
But when it comes to their safety, the innocent and defenseless characteristics often leave them vulnerable to a wide variety of prey, even in your backyard!
Drawing from this notion, one question we are going to answer asks: do hawks eat rabbits?
To find out the answer, we’ll have to investigate different species or subspecies of hawks and understand what they consider as highly desirable meals.
By doing so, the ranking of bunnies among their diet priorities will be uncovered, and the query answered once and for all!
Note: as an addition, I’ve discussed a few techniques to keep your rabbits safe from being hunted down, so make sure to reach the end of this article!
Contents
Do Hawks Eat Bunnies?
Source: @indigo.hawk
Let’s get the elephant out of the room first by addressing the burning question of the moment. The answer is, YES, hawks do eat bunnies and it’s been observed on numerous occasions by experts and pet owners.
However, the answer is still complex because not all of the hawks find rabbits tasty, so it’s not essential to jump the guns upon an immediate spotting of a hawk around your house.
Only a handful of hawk species are delighted to find rabbits roaming around in the open before taking a snatch at it.
Otherwise, if the hawk isn’t part of the species group I just mentioned, your rabbit won’t be under any degree of threat.
So let’s ideate ourselves on hawks first to understand this problem from a wider spectrum!
Basic Information on Hawks: Habitat, Eyesight & More!
Don’t get shocked, there are around 270 species of hawk in the world that are spreaded across in different regions based on their preferred habitational zone.
As you know, hawks are birds of prey belonging to the broader family of Accipitridae. They initially perch up on a tall tree and locate their hunts using their superlative vision.
They don’t only pick up regular light rays, but also ultraviolet ray receptors are part of their biological system, so you can understand how effective they are at tracing and hunting.
Also, these birds have a really high IQ and are deemed as the smartest birds to ever spread their wings high up in the sky!
Since these birds usually inhabit tropical open fields or desert regions for high ability of spotting their hunt, you’re safe if your residence isn’t around such places.
Types of Hawks that Eat Rabbits
Source: @pythonpaige
What if your neighborhood matches the description of a hawk habitat? Or what if you’ve spotted a hawk flying past your house every now and then?
It still shouldn’t alarm you because only 4 species of hawks find rabbits to be a delicious food material. One of them is the Red Tailed Hawk, which is often confused with Red-Shouldered Hawk.
The rest of the three are: Cooper’s Hawk, Ferruginous Hawk and Northern Goshawk. If any of these four species are seen floating around your rabbit’s backyard, then you should probably take some precautionary steps.
As a footnote, Red Tailed Hawk is the most common out of the four in the USA, so it’s like that this is the bird that’s endangering your dear bunny’s life.
How to Save Rabbits from Hawks? (or Other Predatory Birds)
Although it might sound like a menacing threat that there’s a hawk lurking around in your neighborhood that can harm your rabbit, there are ways to prevent such a thing from happening!
Keep Your Rabbits Indoors
It doesn’t need to be stated out loud since it’s almost apparent – keeping your rabbits indoors will save them from the searching eyes of a haw.
This should keep them well out of reach and save their precious lives. But it can’t always be maintained as rabbits require some outdoor time everyday for their physical and mental health.
So the following measures may interest you more than this very basic one.
Build a Mesh Structure in Your Backyard
If your backyard has a manageable shape for applying mesh fencing and roof, you can go for it to protect your bunnies from a hunting hawk.
Should you find this idea agreeable, then I must remind you to make sure that the fencing materials are sturdy.
Because hawks are quite viscous when it comes to hunting, and fragile fences are only a piece of cake for them to transgress inside.
On the bright side, it’ll not only protect your rabbits from hawk attacks, but also from other predators that might find your bunnies tasty. Ones who own chickens, ducks alongside rabbits, it can be a viable measure for protecting them all while ensuring they get enough sunlight.
Ensure Sufficient Food Sources for Hawks in Your Neighborhood
Whether it’s a Red Tailed Hawk or any other hawk species, rabbits aren’t at the top of their food chart and neither the only preferred meal.
It only happens when there’s no other alternate food sources like smaller animals: lizards, snakes, birds or ground animals out in nature.
So all of the pet owners in your locality can come together and contribute to building establishments like small gardens where such creatures can manifest their habitat.
Hawks will deviate their focus at these places to satisfy their survival needs and your rabbits will remain safe from being kidnapped!
How Do Hawks Hunt Down Rabbits?
Source: @pythonpaige
Since you already know that hawks are agile hunters with extraordinary vision, the first thing they do is spot a rabbit that’s potential for being preyed upon.
Rabbits are quite defenseless against hawks and it can be stated in general for any threat they might encounter.
When a hawk swoops down, there’s almost zero chance for bunnies to outrun such fast-paced birds on any given day.
Hawks use their sharp and powerful claws to pick up the rabbit and fly off almost instantly toward a secure location, usually on a tree branch.
There, they tend to somatically incapacitate the rabbit by snapping off the neck and tearing open the body to consume the meat.
FAQ
In this section, we’ll drag the topic of ‘do hawks eat rabbits?’ a little further by answering some relevant questions on the matter.
Q: Can a hawk pick up rabbits?
A: While most hawks aren’t able to pick up a fully grown rabbit (around 5 lbs), baby rabbits can be picked up by almost all of the birds from this category. Only the 4 hawks have the bodily strength to pick up bunnies and fly off carrying their feast.
Q: Is there any animosity between hawks and rabbits?
A: Not really! Rabbits aren’t really the first choice of food for almost all of the hawks if there are other, smaller animals that reside on the ground in the surrounding area. With a full stomach, hawks usually leave rabbits alone, unless the bunnies are still at a young age and little weight.
Q: Do hawks hunting rabbits maintain the balance of the ecosystem?
A: If you’re a rabbit-owner, you know how efficiently they can reproduce. Out in the wild, rabbit numbers grow so rapidly that they tend to consume food sources of other animals, ending up causing scarcity. Hawks hunting down rabbits in greeneries is a natural process that adds up to creating balance to the ecosystem.
Thoughts
So the short answer to the question of ‘do hawks eat rabbits?’ is yes, but the long answer unfolds a lot of variables that you have to consider as a pet owner.
Not all hawks hunt rabbits and the ones they do, it’s not their usual practice. Especially fully grown rabbits are tough to pick up and are mostly left alone if there are alternatives.
And since there are prevention measures in a harmonious way, keeping your bunnies safe isn’t a factor that can’t be made sure of.
No matter how tough or threatening the situation is, our Bird Guidance team in no way supports killing of hawks, regardless of the reasoning behind the action.
Most of the state policies will support my last statement. We’ve discussed viable solutions that benefit both hawks and rabbits to coexist peacefully, and I hope you’d prefer this path over others.
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