Happens Often Yet I Had Not Yet Photographed

Out in the middle of our yard, not far from the backdoor, an eastern cottontail rabbit is raising another brood of young. For the first time ever I was able to see her straddling the nest with young bunnies visible as they nursed. The little ones are almost big enough to go solo, so that may have helped with me seeing them.       

As I watched the rabbit I was thinking about cottontail gene pools – especially the rabbits around our house. Our closest neighbor is almost one half-mile away, meaning we don’t have much intermixing of animals. Yet, we have more and more rabbits being born leading me to wonder if we might have in-breeding going on. And if we do, how come I am not seeing any deficits with each subsequent generation of in-bred rabbits. I will have to do some research on this. I am curious.   

In the picture below, notice the young bunnies under Momma Rabbit.