Sylvilagus floridanus [Eastern Cottontail]

[Andrea B.]

Blum, A.G. (2015) Sylvilagus floridanus J. A. Allen (Leporidae) Eastern Cottontail. Rabbit photographed in ultraviolet and visible light. LINK

 

Middletown, New Jersey, USA

May 2015

Wild Rabbit

 

Comment:

We have a rabbit living in the yard this year, an Eastern Cottontail, the most common rabbit in the US. One corner of my back yard is kept somewhat tangled and a bit wild. Leaves and sticks are left to decompose under a big pine tree. Some brambles and shrubs grow in that corner and also many weeds. So the rabbit probably is able to find a good nesting area. But this bunny needs to stay away from my Parsley and Herb Garden! I'm trying to protect it with some fencing. Hope that works.

 

Yesterday I was making some test shots with the AndreaU and GH1, looked up and saw the bunny sitting there munching on some Poa. I got a couple of high ISO, auto-focused shots with the Lumix 14-45. In Visible light this rabbit is light brown against the green grass. In UV the rabbit seems to be a bit camouflaged against the dirt and grass -- except for the white marks around the nose and ears.

 

The GH1 is not at its best at ISO-1250, but the UV light was low under stormy skies.

 

Equipment [Lumix GH1-broadband + Lumix 14-45 + AndreaU UV-Pass Filter]

 

Ultraviolet Light: Black and White [ f/5.6 for 1/2.5" @ ISO-1250]

 

Ultraviolet Light: False Colour [crop from preceding foto]

 

Ultraviolet Light: False Colour [f/5.6 for 1/2.5" @ ISO-1250]

[nfoto]

You had a patient and curious customer there, Andrea ;)

 

He deserves at least a few sallad leaves.

[Andrea B.]

These rabbits are quite fond of Poa and I have a yard full of that. If Bunny behaves and stays out of the Parsley, I'll look into providing some Romaine leaves from time to time.

[Andrea B.]

Here is a Raw Composite of one of the shots. Well, almost. I reset the white point because the foto was somewhat underexposed. With the AndreaU you can see orange and violet colours in the raw.

 

The histogram follows. It shows the blue channel leads by a hare along the X-axis which is scaled in EV stops. The histogram is from the Raw Comp before the white point reset.

[Andrea B.]

I hope Reed will forgive me for not providing better AU fotos. The Bunny was a surprise, so I just made quick snaps to see what there was to see. The raw orange/violet hues can be pulled easily towards red/blue. This is harder to do when there is underexposure noise, but at least you can some idea of a direction in which the photo could be taken if you like the R/B look.

 

[rfcurry]

"leads by a hare" :D

I love it!

 

I miss the New England Cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis). They were so common in MA and NH when I was young, but no more. In Southern NH we seldom see any rabbits. OTOH, we have a thriving population of coyotes. :(

[Andrea B.]

:D I was waiting for someone to see that!!!

 

We have rabbits, chipmunks, raccoons, squirrels and lots of deer. The coyotes are beginning to show up here in suburban areas of New Jersey. NYC had one running around in Queens the other day.

[colinbm]

Nice collection of your Bunny & backyard :(

Don't let Bunny within a hares breadth of the herb garden :D

Col