amur leopard

European rabbit

Please read caption below.
This is in fact one of the most gutting photos I've ever taken. I stumbled upon this rabbit, lying down. I assumed it was sleeping and took this photo. It was only when I crouched down that I realised the rabbit was suffering from Myxomatosis and that it was completely incapacitated, its eyelids so swollen that it hadn't even seen me.

For those who don't know, the European rabbit was introduced pretty much everywhere at some point - Australia is perhaps the most notable example. To counteract this, the Myxomatosis virus was introduced to their populations (the virus originated from tapetis in South America) to keep them low. However, this virus spread all over Europe throughout swathes of their range, causing the rabbit population to decrease rapidly to the extent that the IUCN ruled it an Endangered species last year.
 

Media information

Category
France - Wildlife
Added by
amur leopard
Date added
View count
464
Comment count
1
Rating
0.00 star(s) 0 ratings

Image metadata

Device
NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D5600
Aperture
ƒ/6.3
Focal length
210.0 mm
Exposure time
1/400 second(s)
ISO
400
Flash
Off, did not fire
Filename
DSC_0566 (3).JPG
File size
3.7 MB
Date taken
Fri, 30 July 2021 4:51 PM
Dimensions
4000px x 6000px

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