If you live in the city, looking at roadkill is a good way to figure out which larger animals live nearby. Mostly, the only roadkill I see is dead gulls. So I was surprised to come across a dead rabbit out on Pope’s Island. The carcass was fairly old — most of the flesh had been picked out, and it was pretty dry. I hadn’t seen it before because I usually leave the road and walk through the small park.

How had the dead rabbit gotten there? I imagined it must have come across the bridge at night, when there weren’t many cars. And how long had it lived on the island? Were there other rabbits living there? I have never seen a rabbit on Pope’s Island, and it didn’t seem possible that rabbits would want to live on a small island that is mostly parking lot and industrial buildings, with only a small park.

About two minutes later, I saw a flash of a white tail out of the corner of my eye:– a rabbit running across the grass into a clump of bushes. Obviously the rabbits have been living there all along and I just haven’t noticed them;– it took roadkill to make me notice.