Rabbits stray or stick around?

[arikun]

I have read where some people keep rabbit like they do chickens.
Chickens will stay with their coop and will always come back to it.
Do rabbits have a similar 'homing' instinct? I know their instincts in general are more...relaxed.
Please DO NOT list things like predators and weather. I just want to know about their ability to stay near or will they just hop off like a new dog.
Thanks!
This Q has nothing to do with me even thinking of tossing the rabbits outside and good luck. More of just a Q at the back of my mind I can't find a solid answer to.

 

[Krissa]

I drove by a house last weekend in Kentucky with three large white rabbits in the front yard just sitting there - I almost caused an accident slamming on the breaks to look at them. They were not penned and were sitting very close to the road

I would never try that with my bunny though - ick, they could have hopped into the road!

 

[Yield]

[align=center]My friend, who lives in Norway (he's a foreign exchange student) has two rabbits who live with his chickens. They stay around, but I'm not sure if they are fenced or not... I don't think they are.

 

[arikun]

I pass a house with chickens, goats and what I thought was a rabbit, too. Nearly all their animals are white for some reason. All free range all over every so often. I didn't know goats would stay put, since I know they will scale fences!
I also nearly made the guy behind me hit me. They were so close to the road and just so random. Weird.

 

[arikun]

Pass a house on my way to work** Lol, sorry.

 

[maxysmummy]

mine seem to stick close... whenever we take them outside they will hop around outside but every few minutes hop back into the safety and familiarity of their home.

same with when we let them run around the house. they hop around all they like but always end up back home.

i guess they know where the food/water/love is

 

[jfinner1]

My Xenos goes outside on a leash or in a pen all the time, but I don't trust him to just roam around. He did manage to get loose once (Not sure, how, since I wasn't home, but i think one of the neighbor kids accidentally left the cage door open). Anyways, when I came home he was running around in the field behind the apartment. Scared me half to death, wouldn't come back, kept running farther away when i tried to catch him... So I just sat on the back porch watching him and hoping. Then this big cat came out of nowhere... I seriously thought I was going to watch my bunny get eaten. But Xenos kicked that cat's butt into the next year, and then decided he'd had enough of being loose, hopped right back to me, and let me put him back in his cage. So no, he didn't just disappear into the nether, but no, I would never let him do it again! :shock:

On an opposite note, I had another bunny, and un-neutered male named Mouse, that slipped out of his cage during breeding season. I never saw him again... But being that I found him wandering wild almost exactly a year before that, I have a feeling that this wasn't his first foray, and I still hope that he is ok somewhere...

 

[MiniLopHop]

The bunny I had as a kid lived in my bedroom and loved to sleep with me at night. My sister's boyfriend put her outside just to be mean! She never came home, but she did get in good with the wild bunnies. She was an american chinchilla and soon after I started to see larger gray wild rabbits. To this day the rabbits in my mom's yard are way larger and more gray than the average wild bun.
I think that makes me a bit afraid to let my current rabbit out without a leash or cage. She is a mini lop, I don't think she would fare as well in the wild.

 

[elrohwen]

I work with a guy who lets his kids' hutch bunny out in the backyard with no fence and the bunny never goes anywhere.

Personally, I would never try it because I think a bunny might stick around until something scared them then goodbye, bunny! I think a panicked bunny would run for cover, even if that meant running far away.

Also, I could see a bunny sticking around the house until you go to pick it up, then running away from the human chasing it - not a good situation.

 

[mypia07]

Bunnies stick around. I found a rabbit that somebody had dumped by the entrance of a baseball field. It took me about a week to finally catch him but saw him every day in the same location.
Rabbits are very territorial and prey animals. That makes for an animal who stays close to home where he is safe.

 

[Flash Gordon]

Cottontails in rural areas spend their whole lives on a few acres, in urban areas they may not wander far from a single backyard.....it all depends on wether the area gives them what they need..thats shelter,food,mates...im thinkin an unaltered rabbit will wander .