# can you get black wild rabbits?



## Titch1980 (Mar 6, 2006)

in the uk?
if not someone had dumped a rabbit, and now im gutted, there was nowhere to park but think ill go looking for it tomorrow


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## mattm (Jul 18, 2008)

Yes you can. They're not very common at all but they definitely exist. They are melanistic.

ETO

Having just read up on it a bit, it seems they are more common than people think...


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## saxon (Feb 26, 2007)

There are loads of black 'wild' rabbits but they are from domestic rabbits released into the wild.
They ahve been breeding for years we have hundreds up here.
We even get dutch marking in wild rabbits ont he moors and sometimes babies with lop ears.
Obvioulsy some dumped domestic rabbits manage to survive.


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## mattm (Jul 18, 2008)

saxon said:


> There are loads of black 'wild' rabbits but they are from domestic rabbits released into the wild.
> They ahve been breeding for years we have hundreds up here.
> We even get dutch marking in wild rabbits ont he moors and sometimes babies with lop ears.
> Obvioulsy some dumped domestic rabbits manage to survive.


Most of those are obviously escaped pet rabbits then that have bred with wild populations etc, but black rabbits can and do occur naturally and may have nothing to do with escaped pets - the melanistic gene pops up fairly regularly in wild populations of both rabbits and now Grey Squirells, too. You can also get albino Grey Squirrels (we have one that visits every so often!)


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## saxon (Feb 26, 2007)

mattm said:


> Most of those are obviously escaped pet rabbits then that have bred with wild populations etc, but black rabbits can and do occur naturally and may have nothing to do with escaped pets - the melanistic gene pops up fairly regularly in wild populations of both rabbits and now Grey Squirells, too. You can also get albino Grey Squirrels (we have one that visits every so often!)


yes most of ours are form escaped/dumped domestic rabbits.

I've seen black squiggles in Toronto, Canada. They were hand tame and you could stroke them and hand feed them. They were even on the beaches. Beautiful they were.


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## Amalthea (Oct 2, 2007)

There is a melanistic population in Dunfirmline


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## Titch1980 (Mar 6, 2006)

maybe it had bred with an escaped/dumped pet then as it didnt seem to have wild rabbit features, if that makes sense


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

And you can get melanistic adders too. There used to be a population of those just outside Dufftown in Scotland years ago.

And of course panthers.:whistling2:


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## oldtyme (Mar 16, 2008)

i know years ago gamekeepers used to put pet rabbits especially black ones on the land to see if the land was being poached


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## Kerriebaby (May 12, 2009)

sadly, people do dump their pet rabbits, and indeed some of those do survive and breed, we have a "feral" dutch rabbit near us, and a few with rather lopped ears too


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

i saw a black rabbit on the big roundabout near me the other day. Always see rabbits bopping about on there but never a black one; maybe somebody had a pet rabbit they couldn't look after anymore and thought they'd let him go where he'd have some friends.


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## daftlassieEmma (Oct 23, 2008)

there's melanistic rabbits up here, most of them occur due to small population sizes, they inbreed and as a result black individuals pop up


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## Titch1980 (Mar 6, 2006)

feorag said:


> And you can get melanistic adders too. There used to be a population of those just outside Dufftown in Scotland years ago.
> 
> And of course panthers.:whistling2:


hi eileen long time no speak 


so would everyone suggest i leave it then and its probably a wild one?


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## Kerriebaby (May 12, 2009)

I probs would leave it...if its healthy that is..if it has been wild all this time, then wouldnt be very fair to go and shove it in a hutch and feed it Russel Rabbit after all the fun its probs having xx


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## Titch1980 (Mar 6, 2006)

t'was a baby, real littlie, about the same size as mine which is 8 weeks old


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## butterfingersbimbo (Jan 26, 2008)

That's bloody small! :gasp:


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## Shell195 (May 31, 2007)

Whre I live there is a colony of wild rabbits and at leasy half of them are black. Every morning we see the babies hopping about. Very cute


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## Titch1980 (Mar 6, 2006)

ahhh oki doke, i shal leavehim/her be then


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## sheldon&shelly (May 13, 2008)

we have a chocolate brown one in our local park soooooooooooo pretty :flrt::flrt:

i sit with the kids in the summer with a picnic and watch them


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