Really? I don't agree.
I reckon the animals that can't escape the attention of large predators (orcs,
Men and so on) have pretty much bolted or been eaten. A rabbit, on the other
hand, might escape notice until a small, attentive and Gollum-like predator
appears.
If Mablung is afraid that black squirrels from Mirkwood are turning up, then
presumably the native animal inhabitants are nearly finished vacating the
premises.
Once people realized there was a genre, they started "doing" other people, doing Tolkien. They became faint photocopies. You get these great big books which are set in a medieval kingdom that is basically somebody‘s impression of what they liked about Tolkien, combined with what they enjoyed about playing Dungeons and Dragons as a high schooler. That‘s not what we‘re doing.
Neal Gaiman
