In the past, rabbits had a bad sense of hearing. They had short, tiny ears and were caught by hunters easily. Many of them were killed, but luckily, they reproduced swiftly. A small bunny named Small Ears, whose ears were exceptionally short, wanted to help think of solutions to this conflict.

A walk in the forest had always helped him think. His friend, Round Ears tagged along. They talked about ways to prevent hunters from capturing them. They could make their eyes super huge to spot the humans. However, they wouldn’t see the hunters if they were hiding. He thought of other ideas, but they didn’t work either. Just when Small Ears got frustrated, he thought if they made their ears longer, they would hear the hunters’ footsteps from far away and swiftly hide in their burrows. Now, they just had to find a strategy to make their ears long.

The two bunnies thought while they hopped. The branches in the forest were dense. All the animals had to be careful not to get stuck in the branches. Small Ears was thinking so hard that he forgot the dangers of these branches. He was hopping higher and higher each time. Suddenly, his tiny ears got stuck between two branches.

“Help, Round Ears!” Small Ears cried. But Round Ears didn’t know how to help him. “Wait, since my ears are stuck, then I can make them long while you pull me down!” Small Ears exclaimed. So Round Ears pulled really hard. This did gradually make his ears long, but he was still stuck. So Round Ears went to get help. He came back with two strong rabbits. The strong rabbits pulled apart the branches. Small Ears was freed. He thanked them dearly. “We’ll have to call you Long Ears now!” Round Ears joked. They all laughed.

Just as they hopped back from the forest, Small Ears heard the noise of footsteps approaching. They told every rabbit to hide in their burrows.

Usually, the hunters would see panicking rabbits running everywhere. But today, it was awfully quiet. They were puzzled. Their leader thought maybe the rabbits moved to another place, so they left.

All the rabbits came out to celebrate. Every rabbit went into the forest and hopped until their ears got stuck in the branches. Then, the stronger rabbits would free them from the branches.

From that day on, every rabbit had a very strong sense of hearing. The hunters could hardly catch them. It was all thanks to Small Ears.