northeast-flora-and-fauna

I'm thinking that this (presumed) Eastern Cottontail is contemplating eating the grass seeds in front of it. As fairly common NJ mammals, I've seen them a lot and talked about them before ( here , here , and here ). You've probably heard about rabbits, hares, and pikas (if you even know what pikas are) will eat their own scat. This is technically true, but it's a little more complicated than that. Unless us, these animals generate 2 different kinds of scat: Cecotropes , which are fermented, soft, gel-like droppings that are re-eaten. Going through the digestive system a 2nd time greatly helps them get all the nutrients out of their food. It sounds like this is also the way a mother transfers good gut bacteria to her kits. Conventional waste, which is hard, presumably has no nutritional value, and isn't re-eaten. June 12, 2022 at Duke Farms Photo 209947143, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)