Rabbit range

[Farmboy91]

Morning all.

Does anyone know the rough area or distance rabbits roam or will travel to for food?

There's not a great deal online about it, the best I could find was an estimate of around 10 acres.

Cheers 👍

[old'un]

I would think rabbits find food within a short distance of their burrows and safety, during the breeding season bucks may range further.

[Eddie B]

1 minute ago, old'un said:

I would think rabbits find food within a short distance of their burrows and safety, during the breeding season bucks may range further.

Yes, never heard of rabbits needing ti roam long distance for food. There is a lot of grass in the fields.

I think rabbits moving into a new area, is a gradual thing. 

[Farmboy91]

Thank you both for the replies, I know they are feeding away from the burrows, around the 100-200 yard + mark, I wasn't thinking they would cover vast distances. I was asked by someone else who didn't know, I suppose it will depend on numbers too. 

[scarecrow243]

you will find the rabbits at the 100 to 200 yards are from a different set of burrows

[Farmboy91]

There's no where inbetween for them to be, bit difficult to describe on here but I've seen them come off the field, disappear through the fence and down towards the burrows. 

I just wondered if any from further afield would be joining them.

[Eddie B]

In windy weather, rabbits tend to venture out a bit further than usual. They will always stay close to a run, which leads back to the burrows

[old'un]

49 minutes ago, Farmboy91 said:

There's no where inbetween for them to be, bit difficult to describe on here but I've seen them come off the field, disappear through the fence and down towards the burrows. 

I just wondered if any from further afield would be joining them.

Are we talking day or night? If its day time it would surprise me that they are feeding 100-200 yards out in an open grass field, although I have seen bucks chasing doe’s around 50-60 yards from the burrows during the day, at night I have seen them a good ways from their burrows, maybe 100+ yards, but generally around 30-40 yards out.

[Farmboy91]

31 minutes ago, Eddie B said:

In windy weather, rabbits tend to venture out a bit further than usual. They will always stay close to a run, which leads back to the burrows

Yeah where they are in the field is not far from the return run, there's about 3 places in the fence line they use.

 

4 minutes ago, old'un said:

Are we talking day or night? If its day time it would surprise me that they are feeding 100-200 yards out in an open grass field, although I have seen bucks chasing doe’s around 50-60 yards from the burrows during the day, at night I have seen them a good ways from their burrows, maybe 100+ yards, but generally around 30-40 yards out.

Day time and early evening, the field backs onto a steep bank which they disappear down.

They strip the bit in front of the run first, then when the crops are a bit higher they end up further in. There's alot of cover for them between where they are feeding and where they are living.

I was thinking how far would they go if there wasn't enough food on their doorstep. It's a quiet area and fairly open  so visibility is good for them. 

[Ultrastu]

I've watched rabbits return 300 /400 yds back across open field back to the hedge line .plenty of grass all the way .

But this is when its propper dark and adult rabbits later in the year  .

I wouldn't say they won't go further. If the food they want is a couple of fields away .

 

[Farmboy91]

5 hours ago, Ultrastu said:

I've watched rabbits return 300 /400 yds back across open field back to the hedge line .plenty of grass all the way .

But this is when its propper dark and adult rabbits later in the year  .

I wouldn't say they won't go further. If the food they want is a couple of fields away .

 

Thanks for the reply. Sounds like the topography, food source, age of the rabbit and time of year and day all come into play. 

Seems as though they are happy to a reasonable distance.