SYH #12 today

Yeah, my first rabbit in 6 weeks. You know, I've been catching skunks (Mephitis mephitis) lately, not on purpose but because the little black and white bulldozers are attracted to anything that remotely suggests anything interesting. No, seriously. I caught my first skunk of the year in a mink (Mustela vison) set by a creek, then I caught another in a blind set on a rabbit trail... who would've guessed that skunks use rabbit trails? Anyway, I was plenty tired of catching large, smelly, black and white mustelids, so today I was very pleased to have caught a SYH.

You know, when I saw the size of the rabbit, I felt sorry for him because he was so skinny. He lived out in the brush and probably didn't try to eat what fell out of our bird feeders, so most of his diet had been bark, wood, leaves, etc. I'm glad that I was able to harvest some rabbits several months ago, because if I hadn't, there would've been 11 others competing with him for food, and they would all have been in worse shape than this one was. Rabbits in our area are at their highest population of the decade, and aren't predicted to be this abundant again for another 10 years.