See Why This Woman Is Being Chased By A Rabbit Stampede?

Visitors to Okunoshima, a small island located in the Inland Sea of Japan, don’t come for the beautiful scenery, the invigorating sea air or the six-hole golf course. They come for the hundreds of rabbits that freely roam the island — indeed known as “Rabbit Island” — cute, fluffy bunnies that are far from shy.

Anyone who is witness to this strange phenomenon can’t help but wonder: how did all these rabbits get here? The answer is… well, no one really knows. There is one theory that is tied to the darker, less cuddly history of Okunoshima. During World War II the island was home to a chemical weapons factory. Chosen for its isolation, all operations on the island were kept secret. After the war the island was completely evacuated, and out of fear of contamination remained uninhabited.

Laboratory rabbits were used for testing the dangerous effects of the poison gas. So some theorize that the current rabbit population are descendants of those bunnies who managed to escape when the plant was demolished. Written records, however, seem to show that all the lab rabbits were destroyed at the end of the war.

Another popular theory is that schoolchildren released pet rabbits here in the 1970s. Allowed to breed unchecked by predators, those few rabbits eventually overran the island. But what were schoolchildren doing on an abandoned island? Whatever the truth about these rabbits’ origins is, one thing is clear: hoards of wild bunnies make for a great tourist attraction today.

Although these rabbits are a wild breed, they are notoriously friendly and accustomed to human contact. While it is highly unusual to get more than a fleeting glimpse of a wild rabbit (typically as he’s dashing away, frightened at the slightest sign of intruders), here the bunnies will not only not run away from visitors, they actually run after them!

How is it that these normally skittish creatures are so bold? In the wild, the rabbit is a prime target for many predators. This muscular, high-protein meal-to-be is classic prey for many other animals, being such a nutritious catch with almost no defenses. What the rabbit does have in its favor are highly developed senses to detect approaching predators, and its quick running abilities to facilitate escape. Which explains why, in the wild, rabbits are such a necessarily nervous bunch — they are constantly on the alert for an attack.

Here on Rabbit Island, however, there is not a single predator to be found. These bunnies live without fear — and having grown accustomed to human tourists feeding them, their natural suspicion of intruders has disappeared completely. Which explains the rabbits’ bold pursuit of visitors bearing food… and certainly the tourists who flock to see them don’t seem to mind.

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