Lepur Talks - Blog Posts
Xenofiction stories that add the negative impact of invasive introduced species and how native animals react and deal with them are an absolute Top Tier for me.
So, after watching a couple of videos about writing xenofiction.
Really rabbits are underappreciated animals in the aspect of how very exploitable their stories can be.
Yes, the most famous book in this genre has them as main characters and does a very good job of representing them correctly (Though not entirely, there are a couple of scientific flaws sprinkled in there but never mind). But the rest of the other rabbit stories out there are kind of uhhhhhhhh.
Because first we have the attempts to copy the first one, and well, they don't give too much by themselves. It's just reading the same thing but made up to look different and without all that sparkle.
And then we have the stories about rabbits that are already on the more traditional side. They are portrayed as calm, gentle, uwu cute or whatever, sometimes very shy, sometimes silly, they are present in the day, they mate like rabbits (ironic), everything kills them, etc. (well maybe some of them are not so bad). And let's not mention attributing the same behavior to all rabbits, no matter the species, it will be the same.
And well, that's not entirely how they work. They are animals that can be really complex in themselves, they are adaptable, variable, stop putting them in the same idea please.
If we are talking about European rabbits, why the hell do we only have stories that occur in areas where they were introduced? Why is there nothing about rabbits in their natural habitat, the Iberian Peninsula? Although it may not seem like it, there are many things that work differently there.
We have the "prince of a thousand enemies" although well, in reality many of those thousand enemies are not very interested in the predation of the rabbits because they were not used to them. That's why they managed to proliferate and become a long-term problem. (And let's mention when in Australia they introduced foxes to hunt the rabbits, but the foxes passed them by and preferred to go for the native fauna that was easier to catch and equally nutritive for them).
But, in their natural habitat, we even have animals that actively eats rabbits. There's also two species that literally LIVE off hunting rabbits, to the point that if these diminish they will too (The Iberian imperial eagle and the Iberian lynx). Just look at that potential with just that idea of predator-prey relationship. How the rabbits see these rabbit-killers and how they see their prey as their source of life.
(To give an example, and in parallel Canada lynx are almost entirely dependent on the American Hare in their diet, so much so, that if the hares disappear the lynx go with them. Not only that, but the hares are actually declining in population because of fear of the lynx. The lynx hunts them so much that the females reach a point where they even refuse to reproduce due to the stress of being hunted by the lynx. This does not happen with ANY other predator. Now transfer that to Europe and WOW).
And if we go to America, ok there are a couple of things with the common cottontail rabbit. But they ignore that there are over 28 species of rabbits throughout America, and even though they are related, each lives in a different environment and behaves differently.
We have rabbits that inhabit deserts and feed on cactus, others that live in cold mountain areas. And even rabbits that build burrows in the middle of swamps as a means of protection, these rabbits are basically aquatic. Why doesn't anyone notice this? Look at all that potential (and let alone the rest of the rabbits in other parts of the world).
