By Stan Tekiela
For me, I enjoy all aspects of nature, not just birds. I find all of nature fascinating and that is what keeps me interested. So, while leading a photo tour to Florida recently I was so excited to see a crazy cool critter that isn’t what you expect when you see it. A true rule breaker.
I was on a boardwalk over a shallow wetland. A wide variety of shrubs and small wetland trees were dotting the landscape along with a ton of aquatic plants and algae. The water was only a few inches to about a foot deep. Long-legged birds and ducks were swimming/walking around feeding on insects and plant leaves. It was a great example of an ecosystem in balance.
I was looking at all the life forms when something different caught my attention. Standing in about 3 inches of water at the base of a large shrub was a small rusty brown, fuzzy mammal, a Marsh Rabbit (Sylvilagus palustris). Yep, you read that correctly, a rabbit standing in the water/marsh.
While I have seen many Marsh Rabbits before, they have all been on dry land. Never had I seen a Marsh Rabbit in a marsh. I was thrilled and immediately started taking pictures because I didn’t know how long it would stay out in the open.
The Marsh Rabbit is a semi-aquatic cottontail rabbit that is found in the swamps and marshes of coastal areas of the southeastern United States of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. It tends to be rusty red in color and has shorter legs and ears than the more familiar backyard Eastern Cotton-tailed Rabbit. It is not uncommon for individuals in Florida to be melanistic, which means they can have very dark to nearly black fur.
Sometimes they are called Marsh Hares, which is an unfortunate common name because they are not a type of hare. Rabbits and Hares are very different kinds of critters. I will need to write a separate column about the differences sometime in the future.
The Marsh Rabbit lives near the coast and tends to stay in freshwater marshes only. They breed year around with females being able to produce up to 6 litters of young each year. The female builds a nest just above water line with aquatic plants and lines it with fur she pulls from her body. Nests are usually deep in dense thickets and surrounded by water, presumably to help protect the young in the nest.