NIMBY bunnies: Chicago dumps rabbits on rurals

A Chicago Tribune article last Sunday about the 10th anniversary of Millennium Park contained this tidbit:

Unexpected invaders: The park’s 5-acre Lurie Garden has had some unwelcome visitors: rabbits who ate bark on some of the garden’s trees, killing them. [Edward Uhlir, executive director of the Millennium Park Foundation, the nonprofit organization that helps manage the 24.5-acre public space] thinks the rabbits crossed into the park on the snaking, Gehry-designed BP Bridge.

Last year, Uhlir said, trappers hired by the park caught 60 rabbits in the garden and later let them go at a “certified release site” about 100 miles west of Chicago. Then a fox appeared in the garden. This year, only three rabbits have been removed from the garden. “We think the fox was having dinner,” Uhlir said.

Hey, I live about 100 miles west of Chicago! Is it city officials’ fault that my green beans have just been denuded!?

2 responses to “NIMBY bunnies: Chicago dumps rabbits on rurals

  1. Ha! Thanks to the fox family that lives on my property, we have no rabbits (even though my parents, who live only a few blocks away, have lots of them). Our vegetables are still at risk, though. That’s because of the deer and groundhogs.

    • That’s pretty neat, to have a fox on property. I seldom see them around, maybe because the coyotes I do see have driven out the fox. I also have a dog who’s too slow to get the rabbits that, I think, are living under our deck. Good luck with the deer and groundhogs!

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