More and more people are drawn to the capital – more and more rabbits as well. Actually wild animals, around 100 hares have settled in the Berlin city area. The long-eared man seems to feel particularly at home where the rents are still cheap: in the east of the city in the middle of GDR prefabricated buildings, where he has copied some behavior from the two-legged city dwellers with the stubby ears. The parallels between the “common field hare” and the “common Berliner” are amazing.
Of course, the capital rabbit eats vegan and is just as picky when it comes to food as a Berlin food blogger. “Dandelion alone does not make the rabbit happy,” says Berlin wildlife expert Derk Ehlert. The grass gourmet needs poppies, daisies and wild herbs to be happy. But anyone who nibbles 1.4 kilograms of greens every day and lives in a culinary metropolis will probably be entitled to make claims.
Non-binding sex and spectacular courtship moves like in Berghain
The rabbit as a symbol of fertility has become the Easter mascot, and not without reason. The extremely liberal mating behavior of many Berliners is by no means capable of shocking the hare. On the contrary: the hares have been practicing polyamory and non-committal sex for longer than the KitKat has existed. Basically, brown hares are loners and therefore fit in well with Berlin as the “capital of singles”. The hoppers then come together for mating – like the Berliners in the club – and unpack spectacular moves for courtship.
In so-called “buck fights”, the males first compete with each other in running, jumping and boxing. The finalist then competes with the rabbit in boxing matches, which look partly rough, partly cute: both rabbits stand on their hind paws and paddle and scratch each other with their front paws, causing the shreds of fur to fly – known in professional circles as “buck’s wool”. They chase each other across the grass, twirling, approaching, and shoving each other away like lovestruck clubbers on the dance floor.
Videos of this spectacular courtship display are favored on YouTube with a background of techno – Berlin’s soundtrack. Appropriately, hares have even been sighted in front of Berghain, says Nabu expert and behavioral biology expert Dirk Köhler, who has been observing Berlin’s hare population for 20 years.
True to style, monogamy and loyalty among brown hares is frowned upon – a female mates with different males. It even happens that within a single litter there are offspring from different fathers. And where there is desire, there is a way: rabbits can get pregnant again even if they are carrying a litter of baby rabbits.
City bunnies are hardened, loyal to the neighborhood and grumble
But “no strings attached”, because the doe is herself: the mother takes care of the young animal rearing alone. However, the maternal attention is rather sparse. The rabbit spends only about an hour a day with her little ones, because she doesn’t want to attract predators unnecessarily, and she suckles them with nutrient-rich condensed milk. East German mothers traditionally return to gainful employment quite quickly.
For a month, the young rabbits stay out in the open in flat grass hollows called “sassen”, pressing close to the ground and trying to remain unnoticed. They benefit from the fact that they do not emit their own odor in the first few weeks of life and that rabbits are naturally taciturn. According to the German Wildlife Foundation, they are not completely mute. “If you listen properly, you can occasionally hear a faint grumbling up close.” Have you copied the grumbling from the Berliners?
Everyone knows Berliners are hard to impress and are hopelessly cool to oddities. In contrast to their rural counterparts, the capital city bunnies are extremely tough. While land hares are very shy and flee as soon as they approach 30 meters, the “escape distance” of the city hare is significantly lower at eight meters.
And similar to the two-legged friend, the four-legged friend is also characterized by a real loyalty to the neighborhood: once Marzahn, always Marzahn. The prefab population in East Berlin has been stable for decades.
Rabbits in the West, Hares in the East: How to Tell the Hopplers apart
Especially at Easter, many Berliners keep their eyes open for grumpy men, but often get caught up in a misnomer. Because the vast majority of big city hoppers are not hares, but wild rabbits. The rabbits are sociable animals, raise their offspring in underground burrows and populate the west of the city in particular.
The rabbits prefer the east, because the green areas between the prefabricated buildings have not been fertilized for decades, which favors the culinary variety of herbs.
The tail comparison shows whether it is a rabbit or an impostor. “When they run away, the rabbits wag their white tails,” says rabbit expert Köhler. If, on the other hand, a hare runs away, it holds down the tip of its tail, which is called a “tulip” in hunters’ jargon. The ears are different too. Compared to the rabbit, the hare has significantly longer “spoon” that end in black tips.
So if you want to see a real Berlin “Easter Bunny” at Easter, the best thing to do is take the U5 in the direction of Hönow. The rabbits are hardened, taciturn, have a penchant for consuming weed and are therefore difficult to distinguish from other Berliners. The best time for sightings is early in the morning, just after dusk – that’s when many capital city rabbits are active. Like the Berliners in the clubs.
To home page
