Anyone who lives "up north" understands why you don't eat yellow snow. But I didn't realize that blue snow has a similar origin.
“Eastern cottontails... sometimes eat buckthorn branches and bark, especially toward the end of winter,” Minneapolis Parks wrote on social media. “Buckthorn contains a phytochemical that turns urine blue after being exposed to sunlight.”Buckthorn is a non-native, invasive plant that crowds out native shrubs and small trees that provide habitat for many species of birds, according to the Department of Natural Resources. So blue rabbit urine is a sure sign there are some plants nearby that ought to be removed. (Buckthorn is such a problem in Minnesota that it is illegal to import, sell or transport it in the state.)In case you were wondering, Iowa-based Blue Bunny ice cream got its name from a child who saw blue rabbits in a department store window, not their brightly colored excretions.
Good for them for eating the buckthorn, which I have to repeatedly grub out from the small woods behind our home. Image cropped for size and emphasis from the original in the Minnesota Star Tribune.
A relevant article from the Mayo Clinic on the rainbow of (human) urine colors.
When I first started having rabbits for pets, I was surprised to see their urine was different colours to ... well, mine.
ReplyDeleteNot only different to mine, but sometimes different to each others.
Imagine my shock upon first seeing a pool of red beneath the rabbit as she squatted in the litter box.
Rabbits are very quick to be toilet trained, but are not good pets for children as their backs can easily be broken by careless handling.