Look out for Rabbits! | Northamptonshire Biodiversity Records Centre

Spring is in the air and we'd like to present you with an Easter challenge by joining in with our Look out for Rabbits! survey. Although thought to be common and widespread in Northamptonshire, we have relatively few records of rabbits in Northants and there are large areas of the county for which we have no records at all.

The rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus was introduced to Britain by the Normans in the 12th century to provide meat and fur and are now widespread in Britain. They can be found in a wide variety of habitats, anywhere they can burrow. Although thought to be common and widespread in Northamptonshire, we have relatively few records of rabbits in Northants and there are large areas of the county for which we have no records at all. This spring we are asking you to look out for rabbits and send us your sightings using the form below.

Rabbits vs Hares

The brown hare Lepus europaeus can look rather similar to a rabbit, but is much less frequent in the county, although we have similar numbers of records for rabbits and hares! The first thing to notice is that hares are a lot bigger than rabbits, and have much longer legs. Rabbits have short ears whereas hares have distinctive, long, black tipped ears.

If you get a close view then you will see that hares have distinctive amber coloured eyes, whereas rabbits have brown eyes. If you see the animal moving then it is fairly easy to tell whether you are looking at a rabbit or a hare, as rabbits tend to hop along whereas hares walk and run.

European rabbit by Amy Lewis

Brown hare by Guy Edwardes/2020VISION

Don’t forget that if you see a hare, we would love those records too! You can enter your hare records using our standard submit a sighting form

If you would like to submit more than one sighting or plan to submit sightings on a regular basis, please create an account before you submit your sightings. You will then be able to view, edit and download all your submitted records.

We would love you to help us fill in these gaps on the map and increase our knowledge about wildlife in the county.

Personal details

First name:

Please provide your first name

Last name:

Please provide your surname

Email:

Please provide your email address. This will only be used to contact you if we require further information to verify the record.

Date Seen:

Enter the date in dd/mm/yyyy format or select the date of the record.

You are submitting a record of Oryctolagus cuniculus

Recorder Name:

Enter the recorder's name, if different

Photos:

Quantity:

Provide an indication of the abundance

Certainty:

How certain of this identification are you?

Sex:

Please indicate the sex of the organism, if recorded.

Stage:

Please indicate the life stage of the organism, if recorded.

Identified By:

If anyone helped with the identification please enter their name here

Comments:

Please add any additional information you think may be of interest

Sensitivity

Is the record sensitive?

Blur record to:

This is the precision that the record will be shown at for public viewing

Location:

Please provide the location name. This could be the name of a village, town, parish, nature reserve, wood etc. Do not enter a postal address as the information you provide will be visible to others.

Location details:

Further details about where the sighting was within the main location, e.g. a road name, footpath, a compartment of a wood, or area of a nature reserve.

Enter a grid reference:

Or search for a place on the map:

Or simply click on your rough position on the map.