A weird thing happened today. There was this dead rabbit lying on the ground next to the fence of our property. I noticed it as Catriona and I were walking by. And then later on, the next time I went there, it was gone.

The dead rabbit had not seemed in any way damaged. There was no blood or lost fur or any other sign of a physical injury or of any kind of a struggle. Nevertheless it had clearly shed its mortal coil. It had left the worries and stresses of life behind it and was now presumably grazing happily in that great green meadow up in the sky.

Spain has a significant connection with rabbits because rabbits are native to the Iberian Peninsula, western France and the northern Atlas mountains in northwest Africa. Of course, since then, they have spread virtually everywhere, largely with help from us, whether deliberate or accidental. Interestingly, the name for the country “España” actually derives from the Romans´ “Hispania” which was, in turn, a modification the “Ispania” used by their predecessors, the Carthaginians. In their local lingo Ispania means, basically, “land of rabbits”.

Given the deep history of rabbits with this part of the world it is not surprising that it is a key cog in the ecology and many of the iconic species here like Iberian lynx and Imperial eagles wolf these things down with cheery abandon. They say one Iberian lynx consumes at least one rabbit a day, and often two, and so it might be reasonable to estimate that a single lynx each year needs about 500 rabbits to sustain it. When you run the numbers it becomes clear that a huge population of rabbits is needed to provide these kind of surpluses. And of course it is not just lynx that has a taste for rabbit. Any medium or large size mammal and a good many larger raptors will take them. In the local ecological cuisine the rabbit is, basically, a big mac.

So what happened to our own disappearing dead rabbit? Since there is no sign of a predator consuming the rabbit in situ or of dragging it away I am going to indulge the fantasy that a raptor might have spotted it and swooped down and carried it away.

Who know?

This is one for forensics.

Sadly no longer with us