Rabbit Burrow in Yard or Lawn, Pictures and Sizes

A rabbit burrow is a tunnel or hole made by excavating soil or dirt into the ground to act as a place where this animal can live or take temporary refuge. It will serve in protecting it from natural elements such as harsh weather as well as predators, or it can be a place to nest.

Allowing these pets to dig, being a natural behavior, will make them happier, help wear down their nails, exercise them, among other benefits. Do not always stop your pets from this natural behavior if it happens in designated areas. 

How do rabbits make burrows?

Bunnies make burrows by digging on the ground. Digging is one of the natural behaviors of both the domestic and wild rabbits and they instinctively enjoy this activity.

A rabbit digging a hole will often use her or his front paws which have not only sharp but also study nails to “scratch and scrabble at dirt for long periods of time.”[1] If these animals live in large colonies, they may create a warren which is nothing other than a network interconnect burrows.

While digging, they often go to their digging stance where they stand near to the place where they want to dig and place their legs apart to allow scrapped earth to be shoved away quickly as they scrape the earth surface to make these holes.

Some breeds can dig much faster than others. However, the cottontail does not live in warrens but lives in nests, hollows or burrows made by other animals.

Finally, wild rabbits can burrow anywhere including in your yard, garden, meadows, forests, grasslands, woodlands, mountains, marshlands, sand dunes, railway verges or even in urban areas

On the other hand, domestic ones will make their burrows mainly in your yard, lawn, garden, beneath their runs or any other areas they may be able to access.

How does a rabbit borrow look like?

Some of the common ways to identify a wild rabbit burrow and distinguish it from those of other wild animals such as badgers, voles, rats, mice and so on include considering the following few rabbit burrow facts.

• They will often be a 10-15 cm in diameter and “usually slopes inwards at a shallow angle.” [2]
• Unless intended for nesting or lying up, a warren will have many entrances, i.e., the burrows will have several entrances.
• They are often in areas with good drainage especially on slopes as well as banks.
• Most bunnies prefer open areas with food available nearby. An open place enables them to see any predator easily.

To positively identify them, you will notice some droppings around them and some grazing signs especially if they are in arable fields.

Rabbit burrow size and diagram, pictures and images

Their size, length, and depth will depend on the number of rabbits leaving in the colony, soil structure and site characteristics but in some instances, they might not be dependent on soil and site characteristics.[3]

Also, sandy areas may have longer ones as opposed to areas with silt type of soil [4].

The rabbit burrow depth can range from 20cm to over 3 meters deep depending on the landscape as soil structure. In most cases, the easier it is to dig, the deeper it will be and vice versa.

Also, when on slopes, their depths will tend to be much higher than on a flat area. Also, the time a warren has existed my influence its dept, with the longer it has existed, the deeper it will be.

Finally, their length will also depend on similar factors we have noted. Typically, a burrow may be several meters long especially if it forms part of a warren.

Rabbit burrows in the yard, lawn or garden

Besides damaging landscape garden and crops, burrowing is one of the most common damage that both wild and domestic rabbits may cause.

If you are not keen, you might not notice them as they “are not always present or maybe concealed under buildings or another cover.”[5]

Finally, both domestic and wild rabbits will cause a lot of damage on your lawn, yard or garden as these animals try to scratch or scrape soil so as to make a hole.

Dealing with burrowing

For wild rabbit burrows, there are many ways of managing them including blocking them, fumigation, baiting, trapping, ripping them, destroying their habitat (habitat modification), and other means of control.

However, for domestic ones, you need to consider things such as fencing to restrict their movement, placing their runs on a paved surface, putting a wire mesh beneath them if they are in your yard among other ways.

Also consider the various ways of modifying rabbit digging behavior including training them, providing them with tunneling, and digging toys such as the rabbit burrow pipe, digging boxes, and so on.