It’s that time of year! Spring is coming, cartoon lambs are showing up everywhere and chocolate is taking over the stores. Must be Easter!
To celebrate this year, I thought I’d take a look at the big man himself. What exactly do we know about the Easter Bunny? Or, as I like to call him, Commander BunBun.
Here’s your Wild 5: Easter Bunny Edition!
1 – The Easter Bunny wasn’t a rabbit at all. What?! I hear you saying? We’ve been bamboozled! Nope, the Easter Bunny was originally a European hare. His legend dates back to the early 1500s too, so this hare is probably getting up in his years. Nowadays, we have the newfangled Easter Bunny who is all white with big, doting eyes. The original BunBun was probably something of a badass.
2- Although his legend started in Germany, in the US and Canada, we’ve come to know the Easter Bunny as a cottontail rabbit. He has his own song “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” (you know the one). Whether he is related to the Beatrix Potter ‘Peter’, I have no clue!
3- The Easter Bunny is nocturnal, just like other European hares and cottontail rabbits. Of course, this is what allows him to get the job done and deliver millions of chocolates and colored eggs to kids all over the place. He’d be rather conspicuous hopping around in the middle of the day, no? To help him get around at night, hares and rabbits both have large eyes. All the better to see you with, my dear…
4- The Easter Bunny and his cousins of the family Leporidae are all prolific breeders. But despite what all those commercials tell you, they don’t lay eggs. But they do reproduce at an alarming rate, with bunny moms able to get pregnant again before giving birth to the first litter. I know, wrap your head around that one.
5- The European hare Easter Bunny would probably win in a competition against the Cottontail Rabbit Easter Bunny. Despite being extraordinarily cute, the hare has two advantages. Firstly, hares can run around and take care of themselves within minutes of being born. Rabbits on the other hand are defenseless, hairless and blind. The hare also has a longer set of hind legs, that are capable of taking him 50 miles/hr. So, the cottontail might be cuter, but when it comes to maneuvering around with thousands of eggs, I’d give the hare an edge on the competition.
Have a wild Easter!
