I-99 Bunny Rescue this AM

Wondering if anyone witnessed or caught video of my crazy morning.

At ~8:55am, on Aurora just past N 39th St, headed south toward GW Memorial Bridge.

If you were at a complete stand-still on I-99 around 9am but too far south to see why, please feel free to share this photo with your supervisor as your excuse for being late.

I was on my Vespa, headed to work in stop-and-go traffic, when I saw an adult rabbit chasing a crow from the sidewalk into the empty bus lane, and I realized the crow had a baby bunny in its clutches, but was struggling to fly off with it due to its weight. It actually got at least 20 feet into the air at one point, but had to drop back down to try and readjust its grasp, with adult bun aggressively lunging at it with some success, causing it to fumble a few times. As it did, I saw a chance to intervene and swerved into the bus lane, pulling right up to them and scaring the crow off; main threat vanquished, but now baby bun was loose in the road, about 2 feet away from slowly rolling cars. Having disrupted the natural cycle only to doom it to an unnatural version of the same fate, I now felt responsible. I abandoned my scooter, and somehow managed to stop both lanes of traffic while I attempted to catch the tiny bun. Before two leading cars stopped and turned on their hazards, a few hadn’t seen what was going on and kept moving, so there were a few moments as I stood in the bus lane looking for it when I was sure the lil’ guy was a goner, before I saw it miraculously dash under another car and I (tbh, very stupidly) went after it, running between and crouching alongside cars, no regard for whether they knew what I was doing. Baby bun finally ran up against the barrier that separates north from south, and I pursued. I knew where it had gone, but couldn’t see it at first because it was camouflaged against the concrete; luckily a driver pointed to it,
and despite it being panicked, fast, and wiggly, I was able to scoop it up after one or two awkward attempts. I’m guessing the whole ordeal lasted less than 5 minutes, but I’m very grateful to the drivers that stopped and held up traffic behind them while I gave chase.

To the folks that did see any of this, if you got video or pictures, please share! I’d love to put a Benny Hill soundtrack to video of me, in my motorcycle helmet and gloves, scrambling between and under cars as this terrified little bun made a mockery of me. But I’m actually more interested in video of the crow attempting to make off with it. I’ve never seen a crow try to carry a living animal that chonky before, it was one of the crazier things I’ve witnessed in a while. It would be too grim if things ended differently, but since I know it survived the kidnapping attempt, it would be fascinating to watch again.

The happy-ish ending (don’t worry, no content warnings needed): I’d watched the parent bun scurry out of the road, so I was able to quickly locate it once I had baby in hand, in the courtyard of the apt building outside which the kidnapping occurred. I put baby down a few feet away and made sure big bun saw it was safe, but after a few minutes I checked back and big bun was gone but baby was frozen in the same spot. I searched, but couldn’t find biggie. Once I figured it wasn’t nearby and intervening further wasn’t going to do more harm than good, I assessed baby bun for injuries to see if it was okay to leave there alone. No apparent issues and capable of movement, but based on its behavior it was still clearly quite disoriented and shooketh. Since the building was right on the highway and there was nowhere in the open courtyard to hide in case of Crow Round 2, I decided not to leave it there in its current state. But I looked online and learned that unless visibly sick or injured, wild baby buns have a much greater chance at survival if left where they’re found than if brought to a vet or wildlife rehab. Once their eyes are open and they’re fully furred, they’re capable of independence from their mother despite their small size, and can survive on their own. And despite the myth, with rabbits there’s no concern of it being shunned or abandoned if left there after being handled by a human. So I scooped up baby again, walked away from the highway around to the back alley, and left it in some tall grass under a large bush, close to the backside of the apt building.

I don’t know whether it will live, but based on my experience with pet rabbits, the fact that it didn’t die from fright alone in the course of all that trauma gives me hope that it’s a tough lil’ guy and might have a decent chance. I live in the area, so I know there are about a trillion wild rabbits in Seattle and one less is nothing to lose sleep over. And I don’t blame the crow who was probably just trying to feed their own babies. But I couldn’t just let it happen on my watch, I had to try my best. I figure I helped increase baby bun’s odds of survival from 0% vs. crow and cars to 50% vs. whatever its next brush with death is, and I’m satisfied with that.