lowri
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black rabbitsI couldn't find a forum to put this thread in; (Wildlife & Nature Notes ?) it isn't a foraging,growing,or eating enquiry.
I moved to this smallholding 20 years ago. The previous owners told me that occasionally there were black rabbits in the local population, and for some years I saw the odd one, they always seemed slightly more approachable than the ordinary ones.
I haven't seen one for years, but this summer the lane (the end nearest the B road) has been teeming with rabbits, and a black youngster has turned up. It doesn't rush away from the van like its relatives. This is well over a mile from the original sightings. My neighbours have seen it too.
Do the wild rabbit population carry colour variation genes (or whatever the correct name is) which surface from time to time, and presumably originate from an escaped black rabbit? And could this be a descendant of the ones in my vicinity?
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Woodburner
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I'm pretty sure it's a natural occurance. It's kind of the opposite of albino. It's called melanism or something, it's got something to do with melanine anyway. Hope that helps 
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Jenna
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Think it must be a natural occurence, as we have colour variations here including black, black and white and 'natural' and white. Perhaps where 'outbreeding' between populations is limited (eg geographical isolation?) a higher occurence of 'rare' colours pops up from related individuals breeding with each other? Would imagine these colours are selected against in most pops as they are much easier to spot! We had a litter(? is that what you call a bunch of baby rabbits) in our garden a couple of years ago, half of them were black and half were 'natural'!
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Bodger
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I've seen black rabbits amongst the wild population in my old stamping ground of Stoke .on. Trent and here in Wales.
There's a farm not too far from us where a proportion of the bunnies are ginger and I once caught a wild coloured rabbit that had white patches on it.
They all taste the same. 
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Marionb
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Yes, there's black rabbits round here too.
I used to breed black bunnies, and a doe escaped, never to be seen again... I used to think the black bunnies I saw years later running wild around the place were descendants of hers, but from what I can gather, they occur all over the place so its unlikely they are related to my doe after all!!
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mochyn
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My son saw one in Richmond Park about 20 years ago...
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hedgewitch
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We have them round here in a particular area. The old blokes who gre w up locally call them 'gamekeeper' rabbits and say that the black was bred into them so that gamekeepers could prove a rabbit was taken on their land. Not sure how true this is as I'd've thought the colour would spread. That said, I've only ever seen them in a small area, so seems like I was wrong there.
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sally_in_wales
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Were a lot of melanistic rabbits in Warwickshire when I lived there briefly about 9 years ago, pretty little things
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lowri
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Thanks for all the info, hadn't realised it was so scientific! Jolly interesting. I like the idea of ownership identification by colour! Haven't got close enough to pot at it (its not big enough yet anyway) but the pelt looks interesting, like Rex rabbit, sort of velvety.
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Leveller
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Yes Gamekeepers and Warreners did introduce them to begin with as the rabbits looked so similar it was difficult to tell if anybody had been poaching them so by adding black ones it made them easier to count but they soon mix and mate with the others.
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Bodger
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I read where a gamekeeper use to leave a nice cut stick on the entrance to his coverts. Tresspassers couldn't resist taking it and he consequently knew if he'd had a unwanted visit.
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woodsprite
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The local estate where my son lives and works as a gamekeeper has all sorts of different coloured wild rabbits. This is because Madame Perrier (the water heiress) who used to own the estate thought that having different coloured rabbits looked 'prettier' than just the usual wild sort, so she instructed her keepers to introduce a variety of coloured pet bunnies to the population. 
The black and white strain has done very well indeed. 
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Green Man
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Always lift your cap to a black rabbit. It used to me a minister (vicar). So they say round here.
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Tensing
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There are a few black wild rabbits round here, and they all seem calmer than the normal brown wild rabbits.
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