Rare Form Of Shedding Finally Proven True!

This stop-action image shows a very rare form of shedding that few rabbits are known to do, and is referred to in the vernacular as "exploding" or "explosive shedding" (the technical term is "hypervelocitous defollicurization"). It has only rarely been witnessed and was considered to be an urban legend, until this image was captured on video for the very first time. With two rabbits simultaneously exploding, it is now theorized that the trigger is pheromonal or otherwise olfactory in nature. This image shows two short-haired rabbits shedding their winter coats in preparation for warmer weather. The entire process takes about a millisecond (1/1000th of a second).

Using a digital video camera feeding 1000 frames/second to a remote computer, we were able to capture this image as they are in the middle of simultaneously completely shedding their entire coats in preparation for a seasonal change in temperature. The fur has been known to reach speeds approaching 1000 feet per second (LIDAR measured this event with a top speed registering 688 Mph) and can embed itself in solid objects such as wood and even cement. This bench was mostly destroyed during this event, as was the background latticework, and the ground beneath the bench actually had small craters lined with pressure-solidified fur just after this image was captured. The camera was also destroyed by the flying fur and resulting shockwave, and we are still trying to get an image of these two rabbits with their summer coats (very short fur).

An unpredicted and untold side effect of this method of shedding, which contributed to the notion that such a phenomena was but an urban legend, is that it is also very loud. No one who ever claimed to have witnessed "explosive shedding" ever said anything about the sound or the damage caused in the immediate area. It basically makes its own thunder as the high-speed fur creates a very low pressure system at the center which sucks the higher pressure air surrounding it back to the center, and the collision of the much higher-pressure air releases approximately 110 dB of sound pressure. SPL (Sound Pressure Level) measurement of this event showed a maximum of 108 dB at exactly one meter.

The lack of more widespread accounts of this method of shedding is now believed to be due to the fact that such witnesses may have been gravely injured or killed by the flying fur or subsequent shockwave, and thus unable to describe it to anyone else. It is also possible that the shockwave (which precedes the actual sound pressure) may have caused the destruction of the inner ear which prevented any witnesses from actually hearing the event.

Special thanks to Dulci & Lucia for allowing the camera and tripod to so rudely just stand so close to them and stare at them all day. Such nerve.


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