A Bunny Tale of a Chipmunk Gone Wrong!

When chipmunks attack!

It was morning at the Arboretum, and the place was full of creatures. Bunnies. Birds. Chipmunks. When I arrived, I almost had the impression that someone had been chasing someone else. There was a flutter of activity as I walked by. Did it almost look like the chipmunk had been chasing the rabbit?

As I settled down and watched, a little drama emerged. The chipmunk headed toward me, then doubled back and looked more closely at the rabbit. It veered off to the sidewalk, then turned and approached the rabbit. As the bunny was eating ("he suspects nothing!"), the chipmunk sneaked up on it by approaching beneath the cover of a pile of green plants.

And suddenly there was biting! The chipmunk bit the bunny on the backside, and they both flew into the air in opposite directions! I laughed out loud in spite of myself. The poor bunny sat there with a hurt look on its face.

In mere moments, the chipmunk was back. It approached the rabbit again, went around behind it, and bit it on the backside again! This photo is the picture just before the second bite occurred. I admit that while I photographed the instant of the first biting (mostly just two blurs, heading in opposite directions), I missed getting a shot of the second bite because I was laughing too hard. Then the bunny took off, heading for safer ground.

Editor's note: for those of you who do not have chipmunks in your area, chipmunks are about the size of large field mice, and they are generally very peaceful. I photographed one at the Arboretum just two weeks ago (perhaps even the same one). The bunny in this photo is very tiny, just about twice the size of the chipmunk. I speculate that this particular chipmunk was behaving somewhat aggressively because it may have had a nest nearby and it felt the bunny was a bit too close.

The song to accompany this instant before the bite is Def Leppard, with Love Bites.