Jackrabbit
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40 creative works found
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Zootomy is a contraction of zoological and anatomy. It refers to the dissection of animals as opposed to that of plants (phytotomy). Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world.There are seven different genera in the family classified as rabbits.
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Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world.There are seven different genera in the family classified as rabbits.
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Nah, Jill isn’t dead. Jill is pregnant and itching. And if any of you can relate to a pregnant woman trying to scratch what USED to be accessible, you can understand her plight. The reason I know she had to roll to get rid of the itch was that she almost fell over trying to use a hind paw and those dogs are BIG. She couldn’t get the spot with either foot or her head. So she walked (that is so strange to say about a rabbit but it is so true) to the spot on Weedy Field’s open space that was the most free of rocks and did like all dogs do. She rolled and wiggled on her back in the dirt. She’s have looked just like a small dog (actually a medium sized dog now that she’s so flippin’ fat…) if not for the huge back feet flopping in the air and the length of her ears. Jill is my newest and largest animal to extend me trust in Weedy Field. I gained her trust all in one magic moment when I happened upon her while she was sound asleep in the Field’s shelter of Cone Grove. She didn’t wake up for at least a minute while I stood and talked to her. When she did wake up, see was rather startled to see me but didn’t run. From about 30 feet away, I talked quietly and she listened, twitching her ears when I stopped talking to hear what was going on around her. When she decided I was OK, she stretched and walked towards me and past to go on her way when there was another 355 degrees of options for directions to go. Of this day, I accidentally surprised her again but this time I was clumsy and forgot where she might be hiding. When I saw her jump up and run, I called to her and she immediately stopped, cocking her ears towards me but not turning her eyes my way. I used the same calm and reassuring voice and she relaxed and tried to do that scratch that didn’t work. LOL! I’m not positive yet but I think Jill will have her young in the second set of trees in Weedy Field. When I stop seeing her about, I’ll leave some fresh lettuce and a carrot or two by the front of that area and check back in a couple hours to see if anything is missing or nibbled. If not, I may try it again because she may be seriously uncomfortable about leaving her young too soon or letting me know where they are. But my guess is that she’ll be coming out to eat around me – within 10 feet or so – before July. Getting something as flighty as a jack rabbit that close willingly will be thrill enough for me. And yes, Jill has her name because the obvious name was too obvious. I’d darn glad I went this way now. Hehehehe! Weedy Field is in the city of Rancho Cordova, just outside Sacramento, CA: 38°35’11.42”N by 121°16’18.81”W. If you use Goggle Earth, you can find it and see it. I work in the building closest to this place and visit it at least once daily to talk with the hummingbirds, play with JJ and the rest of the bluejays, feed the Towhees, doves, and Cedar Waxwings, offer peanuts to Mama, Papa & and the kids, the family of squirrels, and photograph Lizzy, Alpha, and Beta, the lizards. BigYellow passes thru and the highly elusive hawk pops in and out.
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Black tailed jack rabbit in the underbrush. Tucson, Arizona, USA 2008.
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Jill and I had a MAJOR breakthru last week! I went to see her in the shelter of Cone Grove but she wasn’t there. I walked out a bit to where she’s usually hiding if not in the grove and she was munching dried weeds in the middle of Weedy Field. I called to her and once she knew it was me, she resumed eating without fear, letting her ears rise to hear for threats from elsewhere. I watched her for a while and took a pile of pictures (not really photographs as I was aiming to see what she was eating with no effort to capture anything else well. I saw that she wasn’t going to be leaving any time soon so I went back into Cone Grove and restocked the sunflower seeds I saw her munching once before before returning to the new hummingbird feeder to refill it. But I heard a crunch behind me and it was Jill who had followed me into the Grove! I was blown away and she was freaked: so scared her eyes were open painfully wide, her ears were aimed at me for the slightest sign she needed to leave, and she was faced towards the easiest way out of the Grove. But she was THERE and she had obviously followed me in! I was so happy I did my usual ‘freeze completely and talk to her softly’ thing. I about a minute, she relaxed (as usual) and went to the sunflower seeds, looking up at me. I had to laugh but gave her the usual encouraging sounds and she began eating – like a HOG! Good grief, I thought she’d dropped her bunnies already. LOL! I’m almost positive she did but maybe she’s hungry from the feeding of her ‘hare batch’. I sat down without her even stopping to get ready to run (as she usually does), got the Nikon D80 out, and got it focused on her as she ate. I turned off the auto focus to make less noise and disturb her less but she got so used to the sound of the shutter that I turned the auto focus back on and enjoyed the company. Less than 6 feet away from me, a wild jack rabbit was eating from the food I’d originally put out for Towhees and completely calm! Woo hoo! When she’s finished, I talked to her and she looked at me with the most relaxed and interested eyes I’ve seen on anything other that lizards and squirrels – way more intent and intelligent that blue jays, the turkey, and Towhees. This is a shot of Jill listening to me talk to her. I hope to get closer still with some carrots and her continuing to follow me soon. But WOW!!!
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This photograph is mostly to show how calm a wild animal can be after a close encounter with a human being. Contrary to some opinions, not only will Jill retain her “wild” nature and eat what comes naturally (as here) but she will also remain calm after leaving, ears still trained in my direction but you can see in her eyes that she is one comfortable rabbit right now. Never knew I could like a rabbit before, much less a wild jack rabbit – well-known for being extremely flighty and less than interested in humanity. Cool.
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I was visiting some friends in Calgary a few weeks ago and while we were having a BBQ and this cute lil rabbit decided to sit there and watch us for awhile.
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Black tailed Jackrabbit in the desert, Tucson, Arizona, USA 2008
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This was just awesome! Hadn’t seen Jill in a while and assumed she was taking care of her brood somewhere hidden. But I almost stepped on her today when she waited until the last possible moment to move out of Mr. Clumbsy’s way. LOL! I called to her and as before she responded with an instant end of her running. But unlike ever before, this time, she ran right up to me. TWO FEET in front of me, this wild jackrabbit trusted me enough to get so close I could barely get the camera to capture the moment. I’d have the 75 – 300 telephoto lens on and she was way too close for it to focus easily. I had to hold it back a bit to get it somewhat happy; as you can see, this shot is NOT in perfect focus so don’t blame Nikon OR me. LOL! Jill was just making sure I knew she was the best rabbit a guy could know in Weedy Field. A totally cool experience!
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This is the shot I expected to get when Jill recognized me and stopped running away. She was cool and calm but alert and about 20 feet from me. Seconds after this, she ran AT me which is when I got the other shot – barely – because she ran too close for the lens I had ready. LOL! I noticed something crummy about all of the shots tho: they were taken under the blood-red smoky sun so it threw the white balance off in the camera and it couldn’t be corrected well in Adobe PhotoShop Elements 3. There are no accurate reference colours (black, gray, or white) to use. I tried to fake it a bit and run filters for red saturation but I can’t tell if they are even close because of my colourblindness. One thing is positive tho: no two images responded to the sky and the editing the same way so they are probably all seen as very different for people with natural colour sight. This is an issue I have no clue how to correct so if anyone has suggestions, I’m all ears. Odds are tho that the red imbalance will be changing moment to moment with the density of the smoke and nothing can compensate for it but the extreme accuracy of the human eye – the non-colourblind one, that is. LOL!
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Fresh from less than three hours ago, this shot of Jill shows her in Cone Grove of Weedy Field but sitting closer to where I always sit instead of where she’s been up until now. I did my usual announcing that I’m coming in with soft words, whistles and smacks of my lips since I hate to surprise anyone when I walk into THEIR home unannounced. LOL! I turned the last corner towards my sitting spot rather quickly since the only reply I got was from blue jays and they don’t really live in Cone Grove. Suddenly, I’m 10 feet from Jill, face-to-face! She was rather sprawled out on the cooler wet pine needles that the overnight sprinklers had moistened. She looked up but didn’t rise. I took that to mean she was OK with me being there so I squatted down and chatted with her while she groomed. Not too much interesting about rabbit grooming as opposed to cat or dog grooming with on big exception: a jack rabbit can stick almost have a hind foot into and down her ear! GROOOOOOOSSSSSS! That’s about 4 inches of foot buried in rabbit earwax – not a pretty sight at all. Especially getting it out of the toes!!! But the trust it showed, while she could only halfway hear and couldn’t run quickly if she tried, was astounding. She even seemed to love the sensation of her toes in her ear because she closed her eyes as if savouring the sensation. LMAO! Finally almost completely prepared, I had the baby carrots ready and showed her one. No reaction. I said it was a carrot. No reaction. I told her that Bugs Bunny likes them. Blank expression on her face but obviously listening. I gathered up my courage and tossed one her direction. Mildly more attention but no banana. (Gasp. Did I actually type that???) She didn’t act as tho the toss at her was an attack so I braved three more tosses within 2 feet of her and she didn’t react as if it was food or a problem so I’m hoping she comes back an nibbles them later. Jill stood and stretched, looked back at me and stared a moment before loping off (now that she can actually lop again!). Not too far, mind you; only far enough to get dirt to roll in like before. Seems dogs, cats and rabbits all like a little dust-up after a bath…. Silly wabbit!
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I don’t know how but I think I lost the trust of Jill a couple days ago. She never fully calms around me anymore (See her eyes here.), her body as tightly wound as…. well as a typical jackrabbit. She will alloy me to stand 25 – 30 feet away and take pictures but that’s it. No more sitting closer to her and talking. But oddly enough, she only sits where I used to. That’s a small issue since I had the squirrels trained to go there to find the nuts when they missed me in the morning. Oh well, I DO realize that Jill is a wild animal and our weird closeness was, indeed, weird. LOL! She’ll probably still be around now that she calls Weedy Field her home. And Cone Grove, being the least hot and most secure place in Weedy Field will be surrendered to her to also call her own. Who knows, maybe she’ll be back to chat with me once she gets “with bunny” again. And since jack rabbits breed like…like rabbits, I doubt it will be all that long before she’s waddling and looking for a human to chat with. :-)
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©2007-2008 Aimee Stewart, Foxfires – please see my CC Terms of Use before considering using this image for any personal or commercial use http://foxfires.deviantart.com/journal/6266450/ / (Please do not repost this on Photobucket or Flickr!) / —-—-—-—-——- Everyone deserves a love note brought to them by special delivery….
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Texas map with several of our state’s symbols: jackrabbit (yes their ears really are that long), prickly pear cactus (you ain’t lived till you’ve eaten some), horned lizard (cutest reptile on the planet), bluebonnets (a field of them in spring is spectacular), mockingbird (this bird can out-sing any bird in the world), pecan branch with pecans (tastiest pies in existence are pecan pies), Lone Star State flag (brightest star in the universe), monarch butterfly (king of all things fluttery), and Texas ruby grapefruit (sweetest grapefruit there is). And I ain’t braggin’!
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“Hey! There’s your rabbit, Lenny!” Those words spoken by a co-worker (before I got burned, but that’s another tale) warmed my heart since I hadn’t seen Jill in ages. I still call out for her in case she’s about but unsure it’s her human friend but nothing and no sightings by others. Then, the excited yell and I was off with my camera towards where I was pointed. Sure enough, a jack rabbit was in the bushes but a little ways outside Weedy Field. I shadowed her as she started running off and called out to her repeatedly in the voice I always use to calm her. And just like before, she stopped between bushes and looked at me. I didn’t raise the camera quickly, not wanting to frighten her away. Soon enough, she stopped staring and visibly relaxed, grooming herself as I slowly started shooting. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to get the Nikon camera set for some shots into a relatively dark place but touched that darn flash button just before I took this shot. I was bracketing exposures so it wasn’t a tragedy but it did something that never happened with Jill’s eyes: it caused that nasty non-red eye animals get when hit by a bright light. Anyway, she stayed until I had to leave which was highly comforting. But when I looked at the shots on the laptop during lunchtime, I was quite surprised to see this certainly was not Jill! I’d seen Jill so much and so closely that I knew her face and didn’t realize it was unique to her. But this rabbit is much smaller, has a “cheekier” face, and the ears are very much smaller and smoother on the tips. Needless to say, I was shocked that another jackrabbit decided to trust me and not jet off as nature dictates. And for it to be younger made this discovery extremely wonderful! I don’t want to say it was my voice that did the calming but that’s the only thing in common between my first encounters with two different jackrabbits. I don’t want to say for sure that this is one of Jill’s kids that I knew before it was even born but it could be. And I don’t want to get my hopes up that this hare will become a resident of Weedy Field or be my friend but it might happen. I DO wanna say “YIPPIE!” All those nasty details… / ____________ / Nikon D80 / Nikkor 70-300 lens / F-stop: 5.6 / Exposure: 1/60 / ISO: 100 / Metering mode: pattern / full MANUAL mode / Creative shooting mode was normal / Shot taken at 8:42am (3 minutes before the end of my 15 min. break) 12/3/08 / Adobe PhotoShop Elements 3 used for resizing and extensive eye fix-up.
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Placed Top Ten in ””Y Composition Challenge / on Mood And Ambience / (2009.SEP.08) Top Ten in Odd Faces Challenge on Odd One Out Top Ten in Animal Feet Challenge / on Mood And Ambience Featured on / Rabbits – Hares Only / (2009.NOV.19) RedBubble Album: Wildlife Of The Great Basin Canon 350D EOS / Tamron l55/200mm
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Woo hoo! Just good buddy Jill has returned to the Cone Grove area of Weedy Field! There had been reports of a less-than-skittish jack rabbit jetting about early in the morning outside the area but I didn’t let that get my hopes up since most of them sorta look alike. (I know, prejudice: “how would you feel if someone said that to YOU, Mister Lenny???) But damn! They most DO look alike, right? The thing about Jill tho is she obviously recognizes and remembers me. There was no sudden hopping off, no defensive stance, no backing away or scoping the retreat routes. She just stood there as I walked up making far too much noise because I wasn’t expecting her. If ever she had a right to just zip off unseen, that was the time to do it. But she stood there for about a minute to see if I was still gonna be as cool as last year and I whipped out the Panasonic TZ4. Since the rains have been spotty and I haven’t had the Pano in my hands a lot, I’ve been carrying it instead of the Nikon most of the time. I dearly regretted it last Thursday when Jill and I met in the Grove again. The Pano is great for macro and unmatched for video (until I get my Nikon D90) but optical telephoto just sucks, period. You can see things you’d never have seen before at a distance but the image is grainy and it isn’t helped much by either the lower or the “higher” image stabilization settings. And what can higher stabilization be, anyway? Less-less shaky? More-more stable? So far, it’s been big-big flop for me. Anyway, the Nikon will be in my hands until I have so many Jill shots I get bored with them – not likely this century! Notes: Things have gotten a bit quiet for me lately as they have gone all disturbingly dramatic at my job. I won’t go into details but needless to say, I’ve been fighting the symptoms of depression like crazy, not always winning convincingly, and sometimes choosing the easier path of just sleeping. I have faith that God’s seeing me thru the mess and I will never lose that faith. And I ain’t going anywhere as Red Bubble will remain my Internet home. So, if you see a bit less of me and things get a tad slow with uploads, Bmail, comments, and replies, please understand that I’m still hanging in here. I never miss something in my email so sending there will guarantee I see it; Bmail is still a bit shaky regarding the groups’ issue. And with the new formats in both My Bubble and the notification emails coming at exactly the same time, I’m not sure yet if I’m missing comments or replies under your or my uploads. But all will be found and commented upon/replied to/laughed about/cried over/loved sooner or later. :-)
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Jill, the jack rabbit, and Papa, the tree squirrel, have known each other for at least as long I have have known both of them. But seeing them meet face-to-face to discuss life was a treat beyond measure. This was an unusual circumstance since I was off work but went by to try to get Jill when she was napping again for better shots. Sure enough, she was napping; the ground where she had been laying was all cleared out and left as ‘recently disturbed’ by the somewhat startled jack rabbit when I walked up. I had announced my arrival, as usual, so there was probably that moment or two of “what the heck…? OK, how’s my fur look? Are my teeth brushed? Do I need to refresh my deodorant? DAMN, I hate uninvited guests popping in on me!!!” And she looked surprised but not scared as I approached, softly calling out her name. The one who DIDN’T look surprised was Papa and he made his way thru three trees to get to where I usually hide the peanuts under some dirt and pine needles. (Now that I know they can smell them a lot better than they can see them, hiding nuts unmarked doesn’t make me think they will rot there. LOL!) The twist was the Jill was sleeping almost on top the hiding spot – an unusual place for her to be, at least as long as I’ve know her. It would have been a complete bummer if I hadn’t been prepared for something unusual because I customarily walk right to that spot and then look for her. But there she was, ears up and pointed towards me instead of down and in the ‘hiding position’ for a quick departure. When Papa came down the tree truck, I was already in position to get The Shot, then the silly furball moved around the tree and got silhouetted by the bright background. Arrgh! It was only when he was within sniffing distance of Jill that he came out of the brightest background light and allowed me to capture a strange (for me, at least) moment in Weedy Field history. The second funny moment was missed because the light wasn’t right and I wasn’t trying to get a bad shot rather than none at all. Evidently, one of the male jays also knows where I “hide” the peanuts. When I called Jill, I also called the jays; I make a whistle as well as using my voice to calm Jill and warn her of my approach. Well, this male jay is now as familiar with me as JJ was so he comes without screeching when I call. But since I was already INSIDE Weedy Field instead of walking towards it, he assumed the nuts were already ‘hidden’ and dived for the spot. At about 6 inches away from a rabbit nose, he and Jill realized they were a bit too close for inter-species comfort. Jill jumped in the air and “JJ junior” made a mid-air course change directly backward, something I’ve never seen a scrub jay do before. They obviously don’t practice it cuz he almost fell out of the air on his back. LOLOLOL! He righted himself just in time and hit the dirt on his feet, saving his dignity and some dirty feathers in the process. :-D But I missed capturing that half of the Weedy Field interaction. Hehehe! I’m fairly happy with what took less time to edit than I thought because I used the Nikon D90 to do some pre-processing. Nikon has a feature called D-Lighting. It rounds out the highest and lowest light levels, removing both blown out spots and black areas. When I saw that I wasn’t going to get usable shots when checking them while still on location, I copied them automatically with D-Lighting and edited the copies. Sure enough, I could see a bit more than I could see before in ALL the truly bad shots and almost completely fixed some of the marginal ones. The bugger is that you can’t use D-Lighting if you’ve done external editing to a file; the camera says it’s no longer a valid image to edit. But that’s easily bypassed by the copying – within the camera – the original file before D-Lighting is applied. The above shot was a combination of internal D90 editing and external Corel editing. I have only this single file of the chat between Jill and Papa. None of the others came close to this one so shooting 150 errors to get just one shot was actually a good percentage. LOL! All the vital stats to get it accepted in a technical group or two: Nikon D90 with kit lens (18- 105mm) / Focal length: 70mm (I was close, too close for using the full magnification of maximum zoom) / F-stop: F/4 / Exposure time: 1/1000 sec / ISO Speed: 720 / Metering mode: pattern / Exposure compensation: 0 / Creative exposure: none / D-Lighting: off during shooting, on for post-processing in the camera / Full manual mode Conversation between rabbit and squirrel was confidential. I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you. Jill is easily ID’d by her ratty ears and other pro rabbit watchers use that same technique so it must be fairly accurate. :-) Jill now knows I feed her sunflower seeds: her tongue comes out like Pavlov’s Dogs when I rustle the bag. :-D Yes, I got a shot or two of her with her tongue out and eyes have closed as in dreaming about “tastes to come”. LOL! Papa wasn’t the slightest bit intimidated but the much larger rabbit. The rabbit wasn’t showing any apprehension either so I’m assuming they have seen each other before and all is cool. I still forgot the Nikon D90 DSLR has video! >:-( I could have gotten a lot more frames of usable images had I remembered to use it too. My back went spasmodic just before this shoot and I was forced to sit down while shooting Jill at close range. It didn’t phase her at all and made the squirrel a bit more eager. I didn’t try to walk past Jill to refill the feeding bowl so I dumped the seeds and some peanuts on the ground where I was instead. I doubt they complained about it to each other later. If they did, the ungrateful furballs, I might add some pepper to the nuts one day to see if they sneeze alike! LMAO! Preceding line was a joke. I wouldn’t make an animal sneeze unless I knew I could catch it on video. Preceding line was also a joke. OK, where’s my rum? I deserve it now, right? Are you STILL reading? (sigh) I hope this was worth it. LOL! PS I stuck my hand in another bee hive and got The Shot Of all Idiots’ Shots! Kids, do NOT try that at home! I’m a real life PROFESSIONAL idiot. Amateur idiots can get stung to death being amateur idiots. PPS The preceding comment wasn’t written to demean people under the age of 21 years old. People under the age of 21 years old can demean themselves quite easily. PPPS Rum should never be consumed by anyone under the age of 21, PERIOD. I’m a little over twice that age so I can have the rum and you can have those nasty hyper-caffeinated “energy drinks”.
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Jill is just too much fun for an animal that doesn’t talk, make sounds, retrieve things, climb in your lap… Generally she doesn’t do anything at all. Certainly nothing she doesn’t want to do. Here she was looking back at me from about 15 feet. She’s still in the “quick departure” mode but she relaxed soon enough, as she always does. :-)
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/ North American Jackrabbit / (2009.JUN.09) Placed Top Ten on Sense Of Smell Challenge on Mood And Ambience / (2009.OCT.27) 2010 Nevada Wilderness Calendar Shot from my bedroom window. RedBubble Album: Wildlife Of The Great Basin Canon 350D EOS / Tamron 55/200mm Corel PhotoImpact x3
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Jill is now completely comfortable sleeping around me and won’t hesitate to make a small hollow out of the pine needles and leaves to rest. “Sleep” is relative because, like ducks, jack rabbits seem to sleep with one eye open no matter what. Well, most ducks, anyway. If they are paired, one may get totally zonked while the other keeps the eye open.
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A rarely seen type rabbit I noticed resting on the side of the road in West Texas somewhere….....ehhhh “Whats Up Doc”
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A White-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) hiding amidst tall dry grass. Captured in Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in the prairies of southern Alberta, Canada. Taken with a Canon Rebel XSi using an 18-55mm lens. Also known as the White-tailed Prairie Hare, Prairie Hare and the White Jack, the White-tailed Jackrabbit is a hare found throughout west-central Canada and the United States, mainly in open grasslands and prairie.
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Once I titled this shot, I realized that Jill was lifesized on my LAPTOP with its current screen resolution. There’s no way to know WHAT everybody else sees but I can be sure its not a uniform size worldwide. Anyway, Jill was as close as she usually comes these days and the Nikon D90 can be closer to her than it will focus at 18 mm. Video that close is somewhat disturbing. It’s disturbing no matter what’s eating. Ever look at yourself on a video when you were eating? I don’t care if you’re one of The Beautiful People. You look freakin’ awful chewing, even if you do it in public with your mouth closed and on your best behaviour. But Jill and I can do anything around each other and not be ashamed. Well, I’m not entirely sure about that but I’ll need a volunteer to help me test the theory. Female only, please.
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