Thursday, November 10, 2011

The Towhee and the Hare?

Ginny Fifield caught this hilarious video of interspecies interaction with her camera trap set in west Marin.  Take a look and please let me know what you think this Jackrabbit is doing.  I believe that the bird in the video is a California Towhee.



Jackrabbit chasing off the rufus ruffians - Credit: Ginny Fifield

"This is a unique (and funny) video of a jackrabbit chasing birds. Other than the exhibited behavior of chasing birds, I'm not sure what the intention is. Is it just the "fun" of chasing or does it actually intend to catch the bird? And, if it does catch the bird, what will the jackrabbit do with it? This video was taken on 8-13-2011 @ 0826h." - Ginny

At first I thought that this may be a mother defending young nearby, but this species supposedly does not protect young like that.  

References:
http://www.mnh.si.edu/mna/image_info.cfm?species_id=137
http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/mammal/leca/all.html

1 comment:

  1. That's hilarious. I've seen jacks play somewhat like that with wild turkeys, but it was much slower and less aggressive looking.

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