Black Rabbits

[alidoc]

Are there pure black wild rabbits ?, whilst cycling in the Yorkshire countryside I saw one on the verge . I've seen thousands of the common brown ones but never a black one before.

[237SJ]

I`ve seen the odd black rabbit in amongst the grey ones before. I always assumed it was one that had escaped from someone`s garden and gone wild.

[shoota]

Yes - rare but not unheard of.
Very occasionally a white one too.

[woofgang]

all the pet colours were originally sports of wild ones, so it makes sense that sport colours can still arise in the wild population. Round here you can still see white and piebald deer. Some of the white deer are albino (no pigment, pink eyes) but normally pigmented white deer are also about.

[Chipchopper]

I have on occasion seen the odd black rabbit among the browns, this seems to happen when the rabbit population is high, this year there seems to be plenty around so it does not really surprise me.
I remember seeing many black rabbits in the pumpkin fields of British Columbia and black squirrels are also common there too.
No one seems to know why this is but apparently the pure black form are more common in northern regions.

[ladybirder]

Yes alidoc, I first saw them about 10 years ago in the Yorkshire Dales. They are quite common there still I believe.

[beastmonkey]

No doubt the far right will be posting about black rabbits coming over here and taking all the white rabbits jobs!
In the mid to late 90's we used to regularly see black rabbits around a local wood, my younger brother used to wish he could take them home.

[shoota]

They still taste the same....