Rabbits

Rabbits are one of the few surviving animals that appear in Hig’s ordinary post-collapse life: a food source, not a fully described species portrait. Their presence alongside rats and deer offers a small but concrete counterpoint to the wildlife losses that haunt him.

Persistence in a Diminished Landscape

When Hig lists what has endured amid widespread ecological loss, he includes rabbits with rats and deer. The passage does not establish how numerous rabbits are, but it places them among the animals still present in a landscape where many other species have vanished. Their survival is matter-of-fact, set against Hig’s grief for what is gone.

Food and Daily Survival

Rabbits help sustain Hig and his neighbor, Bangley: when they tire of eating rabbits and sunfish from the pond, Hig hunts a deer instead. The mention makes rabbits part of a narrow, repetitive food supply rather than an exceptional meal. The text does not describe how Hig obtains them, so their precise role in his routine remains unspecified.

Ecological and Narrative Significance

Rabbits connect the practical demands of survival to the book’s attention to ecological decline. They remain available as food, yet their presence does not undo the losses Hig mourns, especially the disappearance of trout. The contrast is restrained: survival continues through familiar animals, even as the world that once supported a far richer abundance has changed.