Easter-eggs-bunnies

A couple of days ago we spotted them — the “Easter bunnies” on the lawn in front of our office. Unfort­u­na­tely, they didn’t bring us any choco­late eggs, we would have been delighted 🤓. But what is it exactly about the Easter bunny and the Easter eggs? The belief that Easter eggs are colored and hidden by animals goes back to the 16th century and is not limited to rabbits: in Tyrol, for example, there was the Easter hen, in some federal states the Easter rooster or even the fox were respon­sible, in Switz­er­land the cuckoo hid the eggs and in Thuringia the stork. Eggs are also popular beyond Easter: in 2021, an average of 238 eggs were eaten per capita in Germany. That corre­sponds to about 1.7 kg of protein. But the hare can also be quite diffe­rent: while foxes can transmit rabies to humans, in the case of hares it is the so-called rabbit plague (tularemia). Trans­mis­sion usually occurs through direct contact of live or dead animals. The course of the disease in humans is severe and often life-threa­tening. Accor­ding to the Robert Koch Insti­tute (RKI), between 20 and 30 cases of the disease have been reported annu­ally in Germany in recent years. Hunters are frequently affected. Our recom­men­da­tion: it is better not to touch hares living in the wild — whether dead or alive. We clearly suggest contact with choco­late bunnies. Happy Easter!