The Urban Pantheist

I know I told you folks that I would try to keep you in the loop a little better, when it comes to Urban Nature Walks. Well, I'm going to keep to a schedule of every last Sunday of each month. So that means a week from tomorrow is the next one. This would be a lot simpler if you just joined the facebook group: /www.facebook.com/groups/UrbanNatureWalk/
EDITED TO ADD: please let me know if you are signing up! I have to approve it, and I'm trying to avoid phishing schemes. Thanks, Chris!


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On Saturday Alexis and I took the new pup to Dedham Square to see the giant rabbits.




The puppy (his name is Tomato, or perhaps Turtle) got to meet lots of new friends.


I got to see the rabbits I missed when my dad and I tried to find them all.


The whole point of the rabbits is the famous Dedham Pottery; the most famous motif of this pottery was a rabbit. This piece captures the look of Dedham Pottery.


Dedham pottery was a stoneware with a thick crackled glaze.


This one is "Totem" also known as "The Mother's Rabbit," dedicated to mothers everywhere.


One of my favorite mothers poses with it, with many native New England animals visible in the painting.


The facts that my mom was born in Dedham, that this bunny was covered with the nature of New England, and that it was painted by someone with my surname all made me feel close to it. I would have liked to have won it in auction, but they all went for over 1200 dollars each, some for more than 5000. Out of my range, alas.


"Patch," By Iris Sonnenschein.


After seeing the bunnies we slipped across the border to check out the art at our friends' house at the Roslindale Open Studios.

Last Saturday my dad came to visit and I drove him around to see the Giant Rabbits.

( giant rabbits )

Land's End is the extreme southwest point of England.

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Eastern cottontail Sylvilagus floridianus

Every zoo has animals that come in from the surrounding city or countryside. They aren't caged, they simply take advantage of the protection and resources (food, water, shelter) that a zoo provides. At San Francisco Zoo I noticed the gulls; at Honolulu it was black-crowned night-herons. Zoos worldwide have rats and mice, house sparrows and starlings, pigeons and mallards. At Franklin Park Zoo there are cottontails. The native rabbit of the east coast of North America can be seen furtively chewing clover in a yard in front of an exhibit building, or lounging under the knotweed, much more confident than a country rabbit that worries about dogs and other troubles.

The eastern cottontail was featured in the 365 urban species project.

On this day in 365 urban species: cucumbertree.

Photos by urbpan. Location: University of Victoria campus, British Columbia.

Urban species #218: Domestic rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus

Domestic animals often find their way into the ecology of urban places. They owe their very existence to humanity and civilization. But humans are flawed stewards, and will allow their animals to escape, or through a misunderstanding of "wildness," will turn pets, livestock, and lab animals out of their enclosures. And then there are the countless deliberate introductions, for the sake of sport hunting, or to seed an island with edible inhabitants, which have wrought destruction on ecosystems around the world. In North America domestic rabbits run free because a pet was no longer wanted, an animal mistaken for wild was "liberated," or because a bunny was only meant to be an Easter gift. The vast majority of released rabbits live short brutal lives, their flight-or-fight instincts blunted by centuries of breeding for life in the hutch. A released domestic rabbit has a life span of somewhere between one and two years, according to the House Rabbit Society, and other sources. In Australia, European rabbits (the wild ancestors of domestic rabbits) have run roughshod through the country, and constitute a serious ecological problem.

In North America, there are a few small cities that harbor breeding populations of domestic rabbits. The requirements for a population to become established include plants to eat, soil to burrow into for protection, and a single month to reproduce. Predators of rabbits are many, but their famously high rate of reproduction may overtake the rate of predation. On the campus of the University of Victoria, British Columbia, for example, the rabbits are well-loved by most of the students, and relatively safe from human predation, at least. University campuses are generally free of roaming dogs and cats, and most wild predators (notwithstanding the occasional mountain lion report at UVic) tend to avoid urban areas.

Some more discussion of urban rabbits occurs here.

( see more rabbits )