How quickly do rabbits evolve??

[The Hypno-Toad]

Driving home every day I drive past a grass verge with lots of friendly, cuddly little bunnikins by the side of the road. And yet never, ever see a bunny corpse in the road.. None of them ever seen to get run over. And this got me thinking, I haven't seen a bunny corpse or run one over for years.

Have the rabbits evolved to stay away from cars or as they breed so quickly do the ones next to my road have "learned" not to go near cars as some kind of generational learning?

Thoughts?

[Steamer]

I dont think the bunnies got smarter - I just think the crows became better organised and fly off with 'Squishy McFlatRabbit'.

[shirt]

the ones round here certainly haven't. i work on a large industrial site near open fields. during the day you rarely see a rabbit, but come in overnight and there's hundreds of the furry feckers.

i had to come in last week at midnight, i was down to walking pace at times as a crowd of rabbits would watch me approach then have a mass game of chicken as i got closer. killed 2 in less than a mile and i was being overly cautious at that.

[Scrumper]

There is evidence that hedgehogs - another species that freezes when scared - have learned to run when they see headlights, not sit dead still in a ball in the road.

There's plenty of other examples of rapid behavioural adaptation in the animal world. Birdsong mimicing car alarms, for example, or hunting specialisation in killer whale packs. It's something different to the very long-term physical changes that we normally take to mean 'evolution' but it's definitely a change that helps the group survive.

Animals are not unchanging creatures with no control over their actions and no ability to change. We are just animals, after all, and we can certainly adapt. They respond to their environment just as much as we do.