wild rabbit noises

Question
Good evening,

I have a wild rabbit that lives in my front yard, recently she had babies.  I remember hearing some screeching noises and wondered if it could have been the babies?
Any information you could offer about the wild rabbits would be greatly appreciated.  We stay away from them, but they do seem to allow us to get pretty close, could they be rabid?

Thank you for your time.

Marianne

Answer
Hi,

any wild creature could be rabid.  But generally they would be behaving abnormally - ie - animals that normally don't want human contact seeking out humans, etc.

Rabbits do not make vocal noises normally.  It would NOT be a sign of rabies.  Rabbits will growl if ready to defend themselves, or scream if they were very scared/fearing for their life/being attacked.

What may have happened is something attacked the babies in the nest.  The mom stays nearby but away from the nest in order to NOT draw attention to the nest.

Lee