On the first day of the New Year, Mother Rabbit and her baby rabbits brought a big surprise to Mr. Liang Jiexiang and his neighbors.
A Mr. Liang residing in Tongdewei received a special Year of the Rabbit "gift" yesterday, and upon hearing the news, the left and right neighbors were delighted and rushed over to congratulate him.
On the first day of the New Year, Mother Rabbit and her baby rabbits brought a big surprise to Mr. Liang Jiexiang and his neighbors.
Mr. Liang, who resides in Tongdewei, received a special Year of the Rabbit "gift" yesterday, and upon hearing the news, the left and right neighbors were delighted and rushed over to congratulate him.
"This is a group of baby rabbits that foretell great auspiciousness; we are so happy." Yesterday was the first day of the lunar Year of the Rabbit, and Mother Rabbit named Ashou, whose "home" is located in Tongdewei, Baiyun District, Guangzhou, gave birth to 12 baby rabbits all at once—six white and six black. This "joyous addition to the family" made their owner, Mr. Liang Jiexiang, and the left and right neighbors extremely delighted, rushing over to congratulate him.
Written by reporter Hu Li, photos by reporter Wang Weixuan.
At noon yesterday, at Ashou's residence, I saw that the "shack" where Ashou’s "family" lived was built from wooden planks, cement bricks, and other materials, with an area of less than one square meter, but it had been tidied up cleanly and neatly by its rabbit owner, Mr. Liang Jiexiang. Ashou, entirely snow-white, her body not yet recovered, quietly lay in the corner of the "shack" with her long ears upright. Whenever there was a sound, Ashou would flicker her ears, looking kindly at her children.
"Biting fur to keep her children warm"
The 12 newborn baby rabbits were lying asleep in a nest filled with white rabbit fur. Although each baby rabbit was only about 10 centimeters long, covered with a little bit of downy fur, it wasn't hard to see that six of them were white and six were black.
"The baby rabbits were most likely born in the early hours of the first day of the New Year. To prevent them from freezing, the mother rabbit bit off her own fur to make a bed for them." Mr. Liang Jiexiang said that on New Year's Eve, they found no baby rabbits beside the mother rabbit, but when he went to check on her the next morning, he discovered she had given birth to a litter of offspring. Upon hearing the news, the neighbors couldn’t help but praise the great maternal love of the mother rabbit while congratulating Mr. Liang Jiexiang.
Neighbors joked that Ashou was a single mother rabbit without a fixed "husband" living together, needing to support her large family alone.
The father rabbit appears and kisses the babies
"These newly born baby rabbits completely reflect the genetic traits of their 'parents'." Miss Xie, a neighbor of Mr. Liang Jiexiang, held her own big black rabbit to visit Mother Rabbit Ashou. As soon as Ashou saw the big black rabbit, she became much more spirited, and the two began to play around on one side of the "shack."
Miss Xie said that the big black rabbit had previously "cohabited" with Ashou for some time, undoubtedly making him the real father of the 12 baby rabbits. Due to this blood relationship, half of their "children" were black, and half were white.
When Mr. Liang Jiexiang took the baby rabbits out of the "shack" to bask in the sun, the big black rabbit showed great affection towards them, constantly sniffing the bodies of the little rabbits with his nose and gently kissing them with his mouth.
"Ashou once had a fixed lover and companion, but because there was no space, they were given away." Mr. Liang Jiexiang's sister said that in the summer of 2009, Ashou was brought home to be raised, along with two rabbit companions at the same time. About half a year ago, due to the inability of their residence to accommodate more rabbit family members, they gave away the other two rabbits. Despite this, there were still Ashou's 14 "elder sons and daughters" living in the "shack."
It turned out that last year Ashou had given birth twice—first giving birth to six "children," and then eight. These 14 "children," after being carefully cared for by Mr. Liang Jiexiang and his family, grew up sleek and lively, one after another. By February 1st of this year, Mr. Liang Jiexiang had taken those adult baby rabbits to the flower market to either give them away or sell them.