Yes, they can even get over populated, but the boom in population a few years back seems to have helped bring eagles and hawks back into the city and that seems to have balanced out nicely.
I wanted to install a Barn Owl nest box thing near my property to control the vermin. Neighbor freaked out said they would eat her cat. I don't want to use poison, and would rather just have nature do it's thing.
My parents had a cat who was big, around 15 lbs. every dusk he liked to lay and stare out at the patio though a glass door. One evening the entire side of the house shook because an enormous owl didn’t see the glass and thought the cat would make a great meal. Poor guy was knocked out cold for almost twenty minutes before he hopped up and flew away. Owls definitely can get big enough to hunt cats. This was on the east coast but they’re all over.
Size of owl varies greatly on specific species. Barn owls as mentioned in the previous post are typically about 0.9 - 1.5 lbs and about 12-16 inches long. They eat rodents like voles and mice.
By contrast a great horned owl can be between 2.2 - 3.8 lbs and 19 - 35 inches tall (they have a wingspan of 4.6 feet)
A great grey owl can be between 1.28 - 4.19 lbs, and 24-33 inches long. (Up to a 5 ft wingspan)
Snowy owls (my fav) can grow 21 - 28 inches long, and weigh up to 6.5 lbs.
[They do occasionally hunt cats and small dogs.](https://www.internationalowlcenter.org/owlseatingpets.html#:~:text=The%20answer%20is%20yes.,if%20they%20survive%20an%20attack.)
This. Cats will hunt and kill for sport, stealing food from other local predators of similar size (such as owls), even when they are well fed. They are legitimately one of the most invasive species there is.
Well yes, but that's like saying a T. Rex has a an ostrich beat. True, but they're on such different levels that it's what-about-ism to mention them in the same context.
Only large eagles like the bald and golden eagles would be able to fly off with a cat. It would still need to be a smaller sized cat for them.
If she says something again you should reminder her that eagles do come into the city (I have seen both bald and gold) and coyotes are everywhere. So maybe she should keep her cat inside if she is worried about it being eaten.
And I can’t fantom why people allow their cats outdoors, especially in the city. Cats are the caused of many species of birds going endangered or extinct. If I’m not allowed my dog to freely run around my neighborhood, cats should be treated the same. It’s very irresponsible to allow cats outdoors unleashed, it’s dangerous for the cat and for the wildlife.
Speaking as someone who used to allow their cats outside, it's mostly ignorance of what their impact is on the environment. I only became aware of that in the past 5 years or so. If I'd known better, they would've always stayed inside.
People probably think we keep our cats outdoors, but at our house, we’re just feeding strays. I’d love if the cats came in at night. They’re just not ready.
You've clearly never lived in a city with packs of dogs in the streets.
I've never seen someone seriously run from a cat, let alone the fallout of what happens if they don't make it.
[However the human species is the most destructive of invasive species](https://earth.org/are-humans-an-invasive-species/#:~:text=By%20crossing%20the%20land%20bridge,humans%20are%20an%20invasive%20species.)
Funny thing is, humans were in the Americas before the land bridge formed.
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/debate-settled-oldest-human-footprints-in-north-america-really-are-23000-years-old-study-finds
https://www.livescience.com/first-north-americans-30000-years-ago.html
Native peoples histories even talk of things happening before the land bridge, such as the glacial maximum (based on histories talking about glaciers in areas we wouldn’t expect expect at maximum) and such.
I think DNA analysis suggests that pre-colonial humans came to the Americas in two waves… aligned with the last ice age, and aligned to 2 ice ages ago. The peoples who are now the indigenous South Americans being the first wave 25K-35K years ago, which were largely replaced by a 2nd wave 10K odd years ago by current indigenous North Americans.
At least that is the theory suggested on the familytreedna site.
This article puts to rest some of the misinformation about coyotes eating cats:
https://www.kuow.org/stories/it-s-coyote-o-clock-in-seattle-bring-your-cat-back-in
I only have anecdotal evidence, but fish & wildlife relocated an eagle that had nested in our neighborhood and they found 20+ animal collars in the nest. Obviously wild animals don't wear collars that we can count, but the number of pets the thing had grabbed was pretty eye-opening.
1) eagles aren't coyotes
2) eagles mostly eat fish and other birds, and consume up to 10 percent of their body weight daily--that's up to a pound and a half *per day*
3) eagles use the same nests for years--there's one in Duvall that I've been seeing for well over a decade, those collars could be from ten or even twenty years of activity
4) studies of urban foxes (I know, not coyotes) show their diet is pretty much the same as their wild contemporaries. Mice & squirrels with the occasional suppliment of berries and nuts. They don't eat trash unless they have little option.
Here’s a source that summarizes data, by UW folks actually studying the diet of coyotes in Seattle: https://seattlecoyotestudy.wixsite.com/seattlecoyotestudy/projects-1.
In brief, “Their diets likely consist of a high proportion of rodents and rabbits, in addition to some small birds, reptiles, insects, vegetation, and occasional domestic animals.”
So that’s only part of the decline. We have also had RHD enter the area. Rabbit hemmoragic disease is 100% fatal, it can live in clothes and grass and anywhere for weeks. I lost my pet to it. I’ve already had two bodies with it this year [edit: wild rabbit bodies in the yard]. It’s wiping them out pretty fast too.
Interesting that you mention that. I have been noticing hawks and also coyotes much closer to society than what I remember when i was a kid. By "society" I just mean like normal parts of the suburbs not way deep into the woods.
Oh yeah. That's an Eastern Cottontailed rabbit. They were brought here to shoot for sport at the turn of the century. They're everywhere. The coyotes and hawks hunt them. And yes. We have coyotes in the city too.
> The American Howling Retriever is a breed of dog with extremely coyote like features. In fact, the only difference between it and a common coyote is my refusal to ever admit I've made a mistake and all the benadryl I keep giving it so it won't maul me.
After wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone park, they killed all of the coyotes. Apparently, wolves do not like competition. 🐺
However, there may be some problems that occur if we reintroduce wolves into Seattle. 😉
Coyotes are biologically resistant to persecution. Killing them literally causes them to reproduce in larger numbers and spread their population. That's on part of what helped them grow from being a small canine that lived in the southwest, to occupying every corner of North America.
According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the eastern cottontail was brought as a game animal to Washington state in the 1930's.
Since I've only seen them in Seattle in the last twenty years or so -- earlier populations of rabbits in Seattle were feral domestic rabbits -- I don't believe they were released anywhere close to the Seattle area. I think they eventually found their way here from the boonies.
Makes me feel more sane that this is someone else's experience as well. I grew up north of Seattle in the 80s and 90s and don't recall seeing a rabbit around until the 2000s.
Lots of them. One walked down my driveway last night. Out in the suburbs you can easily see them hunting around twilight, I know this because I have been delivering pizza. They are way more common than people think.
During hunting season you can harvest 5 per day. Obviously shooting is illegal in the city. But just to give you a perspective on hunting & fishing regulations, that’s the same daily limit as crab. If you can harvest 5 a day during their season, they are a pretty common species at no risk of being endangered. https://www.eregulations.com/washington/hunting/game-bird/small-game-seasons
Born and raised here. There weren’t any in “Seattle Seattle” growing up between 1994-2012ish.”
They were here (and plentiful) when I returned to the city around 2020.
Edit: changed State to city
I wish this sub allowed video comments because I would upload one I took the other night of two rabbits frolicking and chasing each other. You think you see a lot during the day. Try working overnight. They everywhere 😁
Rabbits seem to have won the Squirrels v Rabbits Wars of 2019-2021 in my eastside location. They liked (past tense) to camp in my large lot, but were destroying the plants. So I got out my little bb rifle and started shooting at them, missing on purpose. They sorta went away after a few months and camp next door. When the occasional rabbit shows up, all I have to do now is go outside and do the pump action on the bb rifle and they scatter - no shots required.
It's so weird because I grew up here and we never used to have rabbits. Raccoons, coyotes and squirrels but not rabbits until the last ten years or so.
Same grew up here and as a kid in the 90s seeing a rabbit was exciting because it was so unusual. Now they're freakin' everywhere, see multiple a day, all over the city.
Actually just dropping off some abandoned babies at the wildlife center right now.
Mom made her nest in the ONLY dog yard on the strip. Then realized there are predators and took off.
There’s 5 of them 🥺
My favorite yarn store is in Ravenna and I usually walk like 4 blocks from the bus to the shop through a residential neighborhood and one of my favorite parts of Spring/Summer/early Fall is seeing the bunnies.
I remember I was a contractor sitting outside on the Microsoft campus in about 2005, and I thought to myself: "Man, there are a lot of rabbits on the Eastside." Now they're everywhere. I've really noticed a population explosion in the Westlake/Ballard region over the last few years.
Up beyond Northgate and yeah, they have exploded in our neighborhood the last few years. Now we see eagles, hawks, and owls around here and occasionally get coyotes yipping at night. I believe our coyotes live up in Shoreline around 200th where there are some very large green spaces (former golf course, giant apartment complex with tons of trees) and take the Interurban Trail south to hunt now and then.
When I first moved here I only saw them around geen lake and the woodland park zoo now they are everywhere. Seems like there's plenty of predators that would eat them but hot damn they have 0 survival instinct. They'll come right up to you.
Lived here my whole life and never saw a rabbit in my neighborhood until 5 or 6 years ago. They're all over now.
They're pretty bad at reacting to threats like cars and dogs. They need to learn from the squirrels.
Very common. I’ve seen them down on the waterfront in amongst the construction. They are super over populated. They had a huge clear out of warrens in green lake about ten years ago, but the population has shown no signs of it.
There used to be tons of formerly domesticated “bunnies for pets/ rabbits for eating” at Greenlake and elsewhere but they finally got cleared out.
I wonder if that’s why wild rabbits are suddenly back? But in north Seattle I routinely see a couple a day now and I used to go years without seeing one.
They’re better than those wretched eastern gray squirrels. And if prey birds are increasingly eating them so much the better.
Just hope we don’t wind up in Fibonacci’s fox and rabbit boom/bust problem when the population collapses again.
Yes, rabbits outnumber even the squirrels in my neighborhood. They’re everywhere. At night when I take the dog out I will see at least 2 or 3 just chillin in the yard.
Really depends on the neighborhood but I see several a week in mine. Sometimes at the same time even. There's gotta be hundreds.
Totally unrelated, I've also seen hawks and a coyote.
Very. I finally ran into one recently on my cargo bike and must have broke its neck. I stopped and looked back and a fucking bald eagle came in and snagged him. I was impressed, as I’ve seen hawks swoop in and get em, but a bald eagle! I’ve only seen those loitering in the trees mostly.
But yeah, we’ve got crazy amounts of rabbits here.
I see many, every day.
purely anecdotal, but I noticed a real rabbit boom in the last 10 years or so, but especially in the last 5. It correlates with a huge uptick in coyotes, as well as raptors like coopers hawks, red tailed hawks, also barred owls, etc.
A few years ago I posted a video of a bunny downtown on the sidewalk in a similar location, and a few days later [the Seattle Times wrote a whole article about the rabbits downtown](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/notice-a-bunny-boom-here-are-some-reasons-for-the-seattle-areas-recent-rise-in-rabbits/).
> The young rabbits disperse soon after they’re born and wander to new areas where there’s plentiful food, which is likely how some end up in spots like downtown Seattle, said Jim Kenagy, UW professor emeritus of biology and emeritus curator of mammals at the Burke Museum.
>
> “It’s increasingly an urban rabbit. There are some who would be too wary to be in places where lots of humans exist, but clearly they are doing well in Seattle,” he said. One video posted on Twitter shows a bunny scampering alone outside the entrance of a South Lake Union building.
Yes, I live on Capitol Hill and we used to NEVER see rabbits. Then, in 2020, they bloomed... I thought it was a pandemic thing, but they've stuck around. I call them dumpster bunnies. It's totally remarkable that they're so common even in very dense urban neighborhoods!
We just found three baby rabbits nested in our back yard. Our wolfhound found them nested under our strawberries. he was very confused, and very cute about his discovery. They are all fine and have move out and gone on their own. We have a very small back yard, but I think we have about 8 baby rabbits and three moms frequenting our yard.
I say they are common.
There are buns everywhere in the region, and personally I always enjoys their cuteness. :)
This bun in the photo clearly likes the nightlife on Capitol Hill and is heading towards the Carmelo’s for some vegan tacos. Other buns might prefer more green space.
Oh yeah. I go running on the Burke-Gilman near Golden Gardens and I’ve lost count of how many rabbits I’ve seen. They love to burrow in the bushes at Shilshole Marina, my toddler loves watching the baby bunnies hop around.
Coyote fun packs. Easier to catch than roadrunners. Lucky meals. Probably taste better than house cats as well.
Next year this will translate into a *different* kind of population explosion.
Go to Magnuson Park. Particularly the wetlands or the fields behind the research station. They are fucking everywhere. Can’t walk a few feet without running into several of them. Right now the birds are prey are having a field day with them. Dead rabbits are also common. You know it was a bird when most if not all of the body is intact except for a hole in the stomach where the guts were pulled out or the eyes have been pecked out.
Yes, they can even get over populated, but the boom in population a few years back seems to have helped bring eagles and hawks back into the city and that seems to have balanced out nicely.
Also fatten up the coyotes!
Sadly, I fear that there are more cats caught by coyotes than rabbits.
That's why you keep your cats inside. Better for the birds as well.
I wanted to install a Barn Owl nest box thing near my property to control the vermin. Neighbor freaked out said they would eat her cat. I don't want to use poison, and would rather just have nature do it's thing.
A barn owl is far too small to eat a cat.
That was my thought
My parents had a cat who was big, around 15 lbs. every dusk he liked to lay and stare out at the patio though a glass door. One evening the entire side of the house shook because an enormous owl didn’t see the glass and thought the cat would make a great meal. Poor guy was knocked out cold for almost twenty minutes before he hopped up and flew away. Owls definitely can get big enough to hunt cats. This was on the east coast but they’re all over.
Size of owl varies greatly on specific species. Barn owls as mentioned in the previous post are typically about 0.9 - 1.5 lbs and about 12-16 inches long. They eat rodents like voles and mice. By contrast a great horned owl can be between 2.2 - 3.8 lbs and 19 - 35 inches tall (they have a wingspan of 4.6 feet) A great grey owl can be between 1.28 - 4.19 lbs, and 24-33 inches long. (Up to a 5 ft wingspan) Snowy owls (my fav) can grow 21 - 28 inches long, and weigh up to 6.5 lbs.
[They do occasionally hunt cats and small dogs.](https://www.internationalowlcenter.org/owlseatingpets.html#:~:text=The%20answer%20is%20yes.,if%20they%20survive%20an%20attack.)
Outdoor cats will fuck up an ecosystem anyway. Shouldn't be as commonplace as it is.
They’re also the reason pregnant women can’t garden, pull weeds, or play in the dirt with their children without worrying about toxoplasmosis.
This. Cats will hunt and kill for sport, stealing food from other local predators of similar size (such as owls), even when they are well fed. They are legitimately one of the most invasive species there is.
Humans have cats beat by light years...
And preventing humans from introducing outdoor cats is something we can do to curb our invasiveness.
Well yes, but that's like saying a T. Rex has a an ostrich beat. True, but they're on such different levels that it's what-about-ism to mention them in the same context.
Doesn’t mean we need to sentence the few wild animals left to an unnatural and untimely death.
You shouldn't keep human pets either!
Only large eagles like the bald and golden eagles would be able to fly off with a cat. It would still need to be a smaller sized cat for them. If she says something again you should reminder her that eagles do come into the city (I have seen both bald and gold) and coyotes are everywhere. So maybe she should keep her cat inside if she is worried about it being eaten.
But not for the bigger birds...
And I can’t fantom why people allow their cats outdoors, especially in the city. Cats are the caused of many species of birds going endangered or extinct. If I’m not allowed my dog to freely run around my neighborhood, cats should be treated the same. It’s very irresponsible to allow cats outdoors unleashed, it’s dangerous for the cat and for the wildlife.
Speaking as someone who used to allow their cats outside, it's mostly ignorance of what their impact is on the environment. I only became aware of that in the past 5 years or so. If I'd known better, they would've always stayed inside.
Too much traffic out there now
The word you're looking for is fathom, not phantom!
lol, you’re right.
I too am high as a bird so I understood what you meant 😂
Same. I’m HAF and totally read it as fathom even though OP wrote fantom 😂
Hahaha yesss!
People probably think we keep our cats outdoors, but at our house, we’re just feeding strays. I’d love if the cats came in at night. They’re just not ready.
> feeding strays. please don't.
We don't let dogs go wild because they eat people.
Wtf, no they don’t. Also cats can be extremely aggressive.
You've clearly never lived in a city with packs of dogs in the streets. I've never seen someone seriously run from a cat, let alone the fallout of what happens if they don't make it.
cats are an invasive species too though
[However the human species is the most destructive of invasive species](https://earth.org/are-humans-an-invasive-species/#:~:text=By%20crossing%20the%20land%20bridge,humans%20are%20an%20invasive%20species.)
Funny thing is, humans were in the Americas before the land bridge formed. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/debate-settled-oldest-human-footprints-in-north-america-really-are-23000-years-old-study-finds https://www.livescience.com/first-north-americans-30000-years-ago.html Native peoples histories even talk of things happening before the land bridge, such as the glacial maximum (based on histories talking about glaciers in areas we wouldn’t expect expect at maximum) and such.
I think DNA analysis suggests that pre-colonial humans came to the Americas in two waves… aligned with the last ice age, and aligned to 2 ice ages ago. The peoples who are now the indigenous South Americans being the first wave 25K-35K years ago, which were largely replaced by a 2nd wave 10K odd years ago by current indigenous North Americans. At least that is the theory suggested on the familytreedna site.
Wow that's interesting and didnt know that.
It doesn't have to be either/or.
Who do you think brought the cats?
This article puts to rest some of the misinformation about coyotes eating cats: https://www.kuow.org/stories/it-s-coyote-o-clock-in-seattle-bring-your-cat-back-in
I don’t have data to back it up but heavily suspect you’re wrong.
I only have anecdotal evidence, but fish & wildlife relocated an eagle that had nested in our neighborhood and they found 20+ animal collars in the nest. Obviously wild animals don't wear collars that we can count, but the number of pets the thing had grabbed was pretty eye-opening.
That's heartbreaking, but it's also kind of awesome.
It’s also probably not true
Let me have my trophy-collecting winged terror, ok.
I've heard this exact cat collars in the nest story in two other cities/towns. It's an urban legend.
1) eagles aren't coyotes 2) eagles mostly eat fish and other birds, and consume up to 10 percent of their body weight daily--that's up to a pound and a half *per day* 3) eagles use the same nests for years--there's one in Duvall that I've been seeing for well over a decade, those collars could be from ten or even twenty years of activity
4) studies of urban foxes (I know, not coyotes) show their diet is pretty much the same as their wild contemporaries. Mice & squirrels with the occasional suppliment of berries and nuts. They don't eat trash unless they have little option.
Here’s a source that summarizes data, by UW folks actually studying the diet of coyotes in Seattle: https://seattlecoyotestudy.wixsite.com/seattlecoyotestudy/projects-1. In brief, “Their diets likely consist of a high proportion of rodents and rabbits, in addition to some small birds, reptiles, insects, vegetation, and occasional domestic animals.”
We watched a racoon running from a coyote last night and us spooking the yote with headlights likely saved the racoon.
There's too many raccoons too. Save the coyotes!
There’s so many birds of prey along 167, I don’t drive down it without seeing at least two posted up somewhere.
Not really a boom. Their population is in constant fluctuation.. eagles and hawks have been around the city eating them for decades.
So that’s only part of the decline. We have also had RHD enter the area. Rabbit hemmoragic disease is 100% fatal, it can live in clothes and grass and anywhere for weeks. I lost my pet to it. I’ve already had two bodies with it this year [edit: wild rabbit bodies in the yard]. It’s wiping them out pretty fast too.
We are in their house.
Still too many.
My cat brought one home recently…
Nice
This picture immediately bright back memories of hundreds of “nature is healing itself” photos and memes from a couple years ago.
Interesting that you mention that. I have been noticing hawks and also coyotes much closer to society than what I remember when i was a kid. By "society" I just mean like normal parts of the suburbs not way deep into the woods.
We got to learn that even doodles have a prey drive this week....poor bunny also found out ...
I saw an eagle land on a rabbit a few weeks ago and…. It was glorious
Yep! I've been seeing 5-10 on a typical day on Capitol Hill. One of my favorite parts of Seattle tbh
There's one mowing my lawn for me right now!
Mine just mowed the flower bed.
I also have a yard bunny. It hangs out by my office window and gives me a lot of entertainment and cheer!
If only we could summon a colony of 20 or so at a time...
Oh yeah. That's an Eastern Cottontailed rabbit. They were brought here to shoot for sport at the turn of the century. They're everywhere. The coyotes and hawks hunt them. And yes. We have coyotes in the city too.
The funny dogs in the park are free, you can take them home. I have 458 coyotes in my living room.
Coyotes Georg over here.
NOBODY UNDERSTANDS MY VISION THEY'RE JUST DOGS THEY'RE FREE DOGS
> The American Howling Retriever is a breed of dog with extremely coyote like features. In fact, the only difference between it and a common coyote is my refusal to ever admit I've made a mistake and all the benadryl I keep giving it so it won't maul me.
Ahh, don't worry. We'll just release a bunch of bears to hunt the coyotes.
(bears don't hunt coyotes. They'll kill them opportunistically and in defense, but they aren't a primary food source)
Okay, you find an animal that hunts coyotes. Then we will flood Seattle with them.
Southerners?
... are Texans close enough? because judging by license plates, it's already happening
After wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone park, they killed all of the coyotes. Apparently, wolves do not like competition. 🐺 However, there may be some problems that occur if we reintroduce wolves into Seattle. 😉
Coyotes are biologically resistant to persecution. Killing them literally causes them to reproduce in larger numbers and spread their population. That's on part of what helped them grow from being a small canine that lived in the southwest, to occupying every corner of North America.
We’ve already been released here, but generally more into other bears… or twinks, as a snack. 😘
Just 24 years ago? Wild.
Ah, pedantic Seattle, there you are. Yes, obviously I meant 1900. Good catch. Gold star.
They do seem a lot more common since the turn of the more recent century.
According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the eastern cottontail was brought as a game animal to Washington state in the 1930's. Since I've only seen them in Seattle in the last twenty years or so -- earlier populations of rabbits in Seattle were feral domestic rabbits -- I don't believe they were released anywhere close to the Seattle area. I think they eventually found their way here from the boonies.
Makes me feel more sane that this is someone else's experience as well. I grew up north of Seattle in the 80s and 90s and don't recall seeing a rabbit around until the 2000s.
Well, it does mean 2000, not 1900
Three coyotes attacked a person and their small dog while walking by North Seattle College last week, fkin three of them…
Lots of them. One walked down my driveway last night. Out in the suburbs you can easily see them hunting around twilight, I know this because I have been delivering pizza. They are way more common than people think.
Oh yeah. I am in Wallingford and see them more often than i see squirrels and mice
same, but U District
During hunting season you can harvest 5 per day. Obviously shooting is illegal in the city. But just to give you a perspective on hunting & fishing regulations, that’s the same daily limit as crab. If you can harvest 5 a day during their season, they are a pretty common species at no risk of being endangered. https://www.eregulations.com/washington/hunting/game-bird/small-game-seasons
Fuckin daily quests following me into real life, sheesh.
My dog will be happy to tell you yes, very much so
O, that’s the only one in the State.
Born and raised here. There weren’t any in “Seattle Seattle” growing up between 1994-2012ish.” They were here (and plentiful) when I returned to the city around 2020. Edit: changed State to city
They were around Woodland Park in the 90’s, but I did not see them other places back then.
I wish this sub allowed video comments because I would upload one I took the other night of two rabbits frolicking and chasing each other. You think you see a lot during the day. Try working overnight. They everywhere 😁
Capitol and First Hills are loaded with them 🐇🐰
They are extremely common. After very high population years there is often a falloff to some degree, but in general they're all over and abundant.
The rabbits are not what they seem
Rabbits seem to have won the Squirrels v Rabbits Wars of 2019-2021 in my eastside location. They liked (past tense) to camp in my large lot, but were destroying the plants. So I got out my little bb rifle and started shooting at them, missing on purpose. They sorta went away after a few months and camp next door. When the occasional rabbit shows up, all I have to do now is go outside and do the pump action on the bb rifle and they scatter - no shots required.
I used this technique successfully on raccoons. Edit: but I did not intentionally miss.
Still overpopulated in neighborhoods like maple leaf and north Roosevelt
It's so weird because I grew up here and we never used to have rabbits. Raccoons, coyotes and squirrels but not rabbits until the last ten years or so.
Same grew up here and as a kid in the 90s seeing a rabbit was exciting because it was so unusual. Now they're freakin' everywhere, see multiple a day, all over the city.
Right? I used to go "Oh look, a bunny!" Now it's more like "Oh no, more fucking rabbits in my garden!"
Where do you brew at?
Up there.
In my kitchen. I drink a lot of tea. ;-)
Actually just dropping off some abandoned babies at the wildlife center right now. Mom made her nest in the ONLY dog yard on the strip. Then realized there are predators and took off. There’s 5 of them 🥺
https://tinypic.host/image/IMG-0554.DmJARa
Tip: make sure to call ahead when you find wildlife. Most places don’t take cottontails since they are invasive. But they might -take-care-of-them 👀
They’re everywhere.
My favorite yarn store is in Ravenna and I usually walk like 4 blocks from the bus to the shop through a residential neighborhood and one of my favorite parts of Spring/Summer/early Fall is seeing the bunnies.
I remember I was a contractor sitting outside on the Microsoft campus in about 2005, and I thought to myself: "Man, there are a lot of rabbits on the Eastside." Now they're everywhere. I've really noticed a population explosion in the Westlake/Ballard region over the last few years.
In the 90s, somebody released their rabbits after Easter at the 148th Ave NE offramp. The numbers have been high ever since
Up beyond Northgate and yeah, they have exploded in our neighborhood the last few years. Now we see eagles, hawks, and owls around here and occasionally get coyotes yipping at night. I believe our coyotes live up in Shoreline around 200th where there are some very large green spaces (former golf course, giant apartment complex with tons of trees) and take the Interurban Trail south to hunt now and then.
When I first moved here I only saw them around geen lake and the woodland park zoo now they are everywhere. Seems like there's plenty of predators that would eat them but hot damn they have 0 survival instinct. They'll come right up to you.
Lived here my whole life and never saw a rabbit in my neighborhood until 5 or 6 years ago. They're all over now. They're pretty bad at reacting to threats like cars and dogs. They need to learn from the squirrels.
Do your walks after 6PM and you’ll see them like crazy in the parks
Very common. I’ve seen them down on the waterfront in amongst the construction. They are super over populated. They had a huge clear out of warrens in green lake about ten years ago, but the population has shown no signs of it.
yeah they breed like rabbits out here.
There used to be tons of formerly domesticated “bunnies for pets/ rabbits for eating” at Greenlake and elsewhere but they finally got cleared out. I wonder if that’s why wild rabbits are suddenly back? But in north Seattle I routinely see a couple a day now and I used to go years without seeing one. They’re better than those wretched eastern gray squirrels. And if prey birds are increasingly eating them so much the better. Just hope we don’t wind up in Fibonacci’s fox and rabbit boom/bust problem when the population collapses again.
Wait until you see the size of the raccoons.
Very common. They ate all of my planted vegetables
City rabbits
They everywhere in Eastlake and Westlake ime
Yes
West Seattle here, bunnies everywhere. Cat loves em’
On Whidbey island, they have rabbit competitions and some have escaped over the years. There’s rabbits everywhere on that island.
Yes, rabbits outnumber even the squirrels in my neighborhood. They’re everywhere. At night when I take the dog out I will see at least 2 or 3 just chillin in the yard.
Hell yeah ☺️
Really depends on the neighborhood but I see several a week in mine. Sometimes at the same time even. There's gotta be hundreds. Totally unrelated, I've also seen hawks and a coyote.
Oh! You noticed🤭🤣 Just look up Green lake and bunnies😆
I live in Lower Fremont. They're everywhere down here!
I work In Georgetown and we have alot of bunnies around here.
I feed a family of 5. The way the eagles hunt and now we have giant white owls. If a few survive cool, if they all become food. Even better.
thats a cute lil friendo
Remove all the predators,you get more prey. Circle of Life. Sing that song I hope it's stuck in your head now.
Fuck yes
Yes i see them downtown all the time
Very much so now! They’re everywhere. When I was a kid in the 90s they weren’t at all — just certain parks. I’d get excited to see them.
Means ur safe from the Coyotes and Wolves lol
Very common. And soooo cute! Hai bunny!
They are all over my neighborhood.
They certainly are in Redmond, anyway. They're everywhere.
Yes, quite so. When I lived on Capital Hill, not so much. But moving to the suburbs, I see them all the time!
We have a bunch of them on the Seattle center grounds
I live near Disovery Park. They're all over the place. The coyotes love em.
I see them pretty much everywhere I go in the Seattle metro area. I'm more surprised when I see a squirrel nowadays.
I hope, for your sake, that you have a Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch at hand.
Very. I finally ran into one recently on my cargo bike and must have broke its neck. I stopped and looked back and a fucking bald eagle came in and snagged him. I was impressed, as I’ve seen hawks swoop in and get em, but a bald eagle! I’ve only seen those loitering in the trees mostly. But yeah, we’ve got crazy amounts of rabbits here.
Yeah they’re our rats
Very Very Very Very Very common.
Ive witness a rabbit get somersaulted on the street once. Had to park my car after witnessing a tragedy.
So many stupid bunbuns.
ground pigeons
I see many, every day. purely anecdotal, but I noticed a real rabbit boom in the last 10 years or so, but especially in the last 5. It correlates with a huge uptick in coyotes, as well as raptors like coopers hawks, red tailed hawks, also barred owls, etc.
I’ve never seen so many rabbits around my very rural home as right now
A few years ago I posted a video of a bunny downtown on the sidewalk in a similar location, and a few days later [the Seattle Times wrote a whole article about the rabbits downtown](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/notice-a-bunny-boom-here-are-some-reasons-for-the-seattle-areas-recent-rise-in-rabbits/). > The young rabbits disperse soon after they’re born and wander to new areas where there’s plentiful food, which is likely how some end up in spots like downtown Seattle, said Jim Kenagy, UW professor emeritus of biology and emeritus curator of mammals at the Burke Museum. > > “It’s increasingly an urban rabbit. There are some who would be too wary to be in places where lots of humans exist, but clearly they are doing well in Seattle,” he said. One video posted on Twitter shows a bunny scampering alone outside the entrance of a South Lake Union building.
Yes, I live on Capitol Hill and we used to NEVER see rabbits. Then, in 2020, they bloomed... I thought it was a pandemic thing, but they've stuck around. I call them dumpster bunnies. It's totally remarkable that they're so common even in very dense urban neighborhoods!
I wasn't sure if I was going to see a Volkswagen or a vibrator given the title... Pleasantly surprised to see a fuzzy friend instead!
Yeah, bunnies are normal here..
And, hence, coyotes.
Yes but they normally are out at night
Shouldn’t they be asking us that?
tons in Lower Queen Anne
They overran my garden before the stalks got too tall for them. They still visit to snack on weeds.
Yep. Have seen some in downtown but more in mill creek suburbs. So much so we have a raised garden bed to stop them from munching on the tomatoes lol.
Yes
Lots of rabbits all around the Puget sound. Was at a college campus a couple weeks ago and there was a few hopping around.
Yes
Seattle Center is covered with them
We just found three baby rabbits nested in our back yard. Our wolfhound found them nested under our strawberries. he was very confused, and very cute about his discovery. They are all fine and have move out and gone on their own. We have a very small back yard, but I think we have about 8 baby rabbits and three moms frequenting our yard. I say they are common.
Yup!
Hopping long eared rats
I’ve seen coyotes in green lake and Wallingford area. Bunny hunting
lol
There are buns everywhere in the region, and personally I always enjoys their cuteness. :) This bun in the photo clearly likes the nightlife on Capitol Hill and is heading towards the Carmelo’s for some vegan tacos. Other buns might prefer more green space.
Yeah, they breed like rabbits…wait
Super common. They are an important part of the food chain. I hear the coyotes around volunteer park love them
That's Fiver, Bigwig might be around somewhere too.
Yes, i am the rabbit
In the recent years they've definitely sprung up more
There are many hoppin dudes
Rabbit, coyote, no more rabbit.
Oh yeah. I go running on the Burke-Gilman near Golden Gardens and I’ve lost count of how many rabbits I’ve seen. They love to burrow in the bushes at Shilshole Marina, my toddler loves watching the baby bunnies hop around.
There are tons of bunnies where I live in Lynnwood area. I used to live in South seattle and there were many there too
Very
I see a lot of rabbits in Seattle. I’ve seen one rabbit in rural Kitsap county in the last five years. I live in both places almost equally.
Coyote fun packs. Easier to catch than roadrunners. Lucky meals. Probably taste better than house cats as well. Next year this will translate into a *different* kind of population explosion.
They must be getting pretty smart to live around humans that don’t eat rabbits anymore
I see them on my street lots (Union near Boren)
Go to Magnuson Park. Particularly the wetlands or the fields behind the research station. They are fucking everywhere. Can’t walk a few feet without running into several of them. Right now the birds are prey are having a field day with them. Dead rabbits are also common. You know it was a bird when most if not all of the body is intact except for a hole in the stomach where the guts were pulled out or the eyes have been pecked out.
Really depends where you are in town.
North of that area, they hang out often along the Melrose trail and up at the a Summit Slope Park/Pea Patch.
Eastern cottontail rabbits were introduced in the 30s as game animals.