The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Just a question...i was sat in a field waiting for a sparrow hawk but ended up watching quite alot of wheatears..anyway in the field there was also rabbits but three of them were black..so question is..would these wild rabbits be descended from domestic rabbits or are black rabbits common?

I don't know if they are common but Gibraltar Point had a population of black rabbits a few years ago - I don't know if they are still there.

there are always a few blacks at Saltfleetby nnr Stuart
I assume there a throwback to the warren days when various colours
were raised for the fur trade, unless there melanistics. regards John.

Don't know if it's too late to put a response, but I only joined in May and have actually only just opened up the mammals page.

Here at Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe NNR, I regularly see black rabbits between Churchill and Crook Bank, but most commonly at the southern end. My understanding is that black rabbits were raised in the farmed warrens along the coast many years ago, so these we see now will be from escapes back then.

regards
Cliff