- "Bunny" redirects here. For other uses, see Bunny . For other uses, see Rabbit .
Rabbits are small
mammals in the
family Leporidae of the order
Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. There are seven different
genera in the family
classified as rabbits, including the
European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus),
Cottontail rabbit (genus Sylvilagus; 13
species), and the
Amami rabbit (Pentalagus furnessi,
endangered species on
Amami Ōshima,
Japan). There are many other species of rabbit, and these, along with
pikas and
hares, make up the
order Lagomorpha.
Location and habitat
thumb|alt=Entrance to a rabbit burrow|Entrance to a rabbit burrow with rabbit droppings near entranceThe rabbit lives in many areas around the world. Rabbits live in groups, and the best known species, the
European rabbit lives in underground
burrows, or rabbit holes. A group of burrows is called a
warren.
Meadows,
woods,
forests,
thickets, and
grasslands are areas in which rabbits live. They also inhabit
deserts and
wetlands. More than half the world's rabbit population resides in
North America. They also live in
Europe,
India,
Sumatra,
Japan, and parts of
Africa. The
European rabbit has been introduced to many places around the world.
Characteristics and anatomy
The rabbit's long ears, which can be more than long, are probably an adaptation for detecting
predators. They have large, powerful hind legs. Each foot has five toes, with one greatly reduced in size. They are
digitigrade animals; they move around on the tips of their toes. Wild rabbits do not differ much in their body proportions or stance, with full, egg-shaped bodies. Their size can range anywhere from in length and 0.4 kg in weight to and more than 2 kg. The fur is most commonly long and soft, with colors such as shades of
brown,
gray, and
buff. The tail is a little plume of brownish fur (white on top for
cottontails).
Cecal pellets
Rabbits are
hindgut digesters. This means that most of their digestion takes place in their
large intestine and
cecum. In rabbits, the cecum is about 10 times bigger than the stomach, and it, along with the large intestine, makes up roughly 40% of the rabbit's digestive tract."Feeding the Pet Rabbit"
Cecotropes, sometimes called "night feces", come from the cecum and are high in
minerals,
vitamins and
proteins that are necessary to the rabbit's health. Rabbits eat these to meet their nutritional requirements. This process allows rabbits to extract the necessary nutrients from their food.Dr. Byron de la Navarre's "Care of Rabbits" Susan A. Brown, DVM's "Overview of Common Rabbit Diseases: Diseases Related to Diet"
Rabbits have two sets of incisor teeth, one behind the other. This way they can be distinguished from
rodents, with which they are often mistaken.
Behavior
Rabbits, being prey animals, tend to be exploratory in new spaces and when confronted with a threat, they tend to freeze and observe. Rabbit vision has a remarkably wide field of vision, and a good deal of it is devoted to overhead scanning. Even indoors, rabbits will scan for overhead threats.
Rabbits have a complex social structure, and like dogs, will attempt to establish a hierarchy and dominance.
Reproduction
thumb|left|Domestic pet kittens 1 hour after birth.Female rabbits do not actually ovulate until after breeding. They have a bifurcated
uterus and often, breeding can involve multiple acts that can result in
multiple impregnations from different bucks (male rabbits). Males are commonly sterile during the heat of summer months.
A litter of rabbit kits (baby rabbits) can be as small as a single kit, ranging up to 12 or 13; however there have been litters as big as 18. The gestation period is 30–32 days.
thumb|right|Nest with young.
Diet and eating habits
Rabbits are
herbivores who feed by grazing on
grass,
forbs, and leafy weeds. In consequence, their diet contains large amounts of
cellulose, which is hard to digest. Rabbits solve this problem by passing two distinct types of feces: hard droppings and soft black viscous pellets, the latter of which are immediately eaten. Rabbits
reingest their own droppings (rather than
chewing the cud as do cows and many other herbivores) to digest their food further and extract sufficient nutrients.
Information for Rabbit OwnersRabbits graze heavily and rapidly for roughly the first half hour of a grazing period (usually in the late afternoon), followed by about half an hour of more selective feeding. In this time, the rabbit will also excrete many hard fecal pellets, being waste pellets that will not be reingested. If the environment is relatively non-threatening, the rabbit will remain outdoors for many hours, grazing at intervals. While out of the burrow, the rabbit will occasionally reingest its soft, partially digested pellets; this is rarely observed, since the pellets are reingested as they are produced. Reingestion is most common within the burrow between 8 o'clock in the morning and 5 o'clock in the evening, being carried out intermittently within that period.
Hard pellets are made up of hay-like fragments of plant cuticle and stalk, being the final waste product after redigestion of soft pellets. These are only released outside the burrow and are not reingested. Soft pellets are usually produced several hours after grazing, after the hard pellets have all been excreted. They are made up of micro-organisms and undigested plant cell walls.
The chewed plant material collects in the large cecum, a secondary chamber between the large and small intestine containing large quantities of symbiotic bacteria that help with the digestion of cellulose and also produce certain B vitamins. The pellets are about 56% bacteria by dry weight, largely accounting for the pellets being 24.4% protein on average. These pellets remain intact for up to six hours in the stomach; the bacteria within continue to digest the plant carbohydrates. The soft feces form here and contain up to five times the vitamins of hard feces. After being excreted, they are eaten whole by the rabbit and redigested in a special part of the stomach. This double-digestion process enables rabbits to use nutrients that they may have missed during the first passage through the gut, and thus ensures that maximum nutrition is derived from the food they eat. This process serves the same purpose within the rabbit as
rumination does in cattle and sheep.The Private Life of the Rabbit, R. M. Lockley, 1964. Chapter 10.
Rabbits are incapable of
vomiting due to the
physiology of their digestive system.
Diseases
Differences from hares
Rabbits are clearly distinguished from hares in that rabbits are
altricial, having young that are born blind and hairless. In contrast, hares are generally born with hair and are able to see (
precocial). All rabbits except the cottontail rabbit live underground in
burrows or warrens, while hares live in simple nests above the ground (as does the
cottontail rabbit), and usually do not live in groups. Hares are generally larger than rabbits, with longer ears, and have black markings on their fur. Hares have not been
domesticated, while
European rabbits are often kept as house pets. In gardens, they are typically kept in
hutches — small, wooden, house-like boxes — that protect the rabbits from the environment and predators.
As pets
thumb|Oryctolagus cuniculusPet rabbits kept indoors are referred to as
house rabbits. House rabbits typically have an indoor pen or cage and a rabbit-safe place to run and exercise, such as an exercise pen, living room or family room. Rabbits can be trained to use a litter box and some can learn to come when called.
Domestic rabbits that do not live indoors can also often serve as companions for their owners, typically living in an easily accessible hutch outside the home. Some pet rabbits live in outside hutches during the day for the benefit of fresh air and natural daylight and are brought inside at night.
Whether indoor or outdoor, pet rabbits' pens are often equipped with enrichment activities such as shelves, tunnels, balls, and other toys. Pet rabbits are often provided additional space in which to get exercise, simulating the open space a rabbit would traverse in the wild. Exercise pens or lawn pens are often used to provide a safe place for rabbits to run.
A pet rabbit's diet typically consists of unlimited
Timothy hay, a small amount of pellets, and a small portion of fresh vegetables.
Rabbits are social animals. Rabbits as pets can find their companionship with a variety of creatures, including humans, other rabbits,
guinea pigs, and sometimes even
cats and
dogs. Rabbits do not make good pets for small children because they do not know how to stay quiet, calm, and gentle around rabbits. As prey animals, rabbits are alert, timid creatures that startle easily. They have fragile bones, especially in their backs, that require support on the belly and bottom when picked up. Children 10 years old and older usually have the maturity required to care for a rabbit.
As food and clothing
thumb|right|Rabbits may be slaughter|slaughtered commercially for their meat.]
Leporids such as European rabbits and
hares are a food meat in Europe, South America, North America, some parts of the Middle East, and China, among other places.
Rabbit is still commonly sold in UK butchers and markets, although not frequently in supermarkets. At farmers markets and the famous
Borough Market in London, rabbits will be displayed dead and hanging unbutchered in the traditional style next to braces of
pheasant and other small game. Rabbit meat was once commonly sold in
Sydney,
Australia, the sellers of which giving the name to the
rugby league team the
South Sydney Rabbitohs, but quickly became unpopular after the disease
myxomatosis was introduced in an attempt to wipe out the feral rabbit population (see also
Rabbits in Australia).
When used for food, rabbits are both hunted and bred for meat.
Snare or
guns along with dogs are usually employed when catching wild rabbits for food. In many regions, rabbits are also bred for meat, a practice called
cuniculture. Rabbits can then be killed by hitting the back of their heads, a practice from which the term
rabbit punch is derived. Rabbit meat is a source of high quality protein. It can be used in most ways chicken meat is used. In fact, well-known chef
Mark Bittman says that domesticated rabbit
tastes like chicken because both are blank palettes upon which any desired flavors can be layered. Rabbit meat is leaner than beef, pork, and chicken meat. Rabbit products are generally labeled in three ways, the first being Fryer. This is a young rabbit between 4.5 and 5 pounds and up to 9 weeks in age.
[1]North Dakota Dept. of Ag. This type of meat is tender and fine grained. The next product is a Roaster; they are usually over 5 pounds and up to 8 months in age. The flesh is firm and coarse grained and less tender than a fryer. Then there are giblets which include the liver and heart. One of the most common types of rabbit to be bred for meat is
New Zealand white rabbit.
There are several health issues associated with the use of rabbits for meat, one of which is
Tularemia or Rabbit Fever.
Tularemia (Rabbit fever) Another is so-called
rabbit starvation, due most likely to essential
fatty acid deficiencies in rabbit meat and synthesis limitations in human beings.
Rabbits are a favorite food item of large pythons, such as Burmese pythons and reticulated pythons, both in the wild, as well as pet pythons. A typical diet for example, for a pet Burmese python, is a rabbit once a week.
Rabbit
pelts are sometimes used in for clothing and accessories, such as scarves or hats.
Angora rabbits are bread for their
long, fine hair, which can be sheared and harvested like
sheep wool. Rabbits are very good producers of manure; additionally, their urine, being high in nitrogen, makes lemon trees very productive. Their milk may also be of great medicinal or nutritional benefit due to its high protein content.
Environmental problems
Rabbits have been a source of environmental problems when introduced into the wild by humans. As a result of their appetites, and the rate at which they breed, wild rabbit depredation can be problematic for agriculture.
Gassing,
barriers , shooting, snaring, and
ferreting have been used to control rabbit populations, but the most effective measures are diseases such as
myxomatosis (myxo or mixi, colloquially) and
calicivirus. In Europe, where rabbits are farmed on a large scale, they are protected against myxomatosis and calicivirus with a genetically modified virus. The virus was developed in Spain, and is beneficial to rabbit farmers. If it were to make its way into wild populations in areas such as Australia, it could create a population boom, as those diseases are the most serious threats to rabbit survival. Rabbits in Australia are considered to be such a pest that land owners are legally obliged to control them.
Naming
Rabbits are often known affectionately by the pet name bunny or bunny rabbit, especially when referring to young, domesticated rabbits. Originally, the word for an adult rabbit was coney or cony, while rabbit referred only to the young animals. The word rabbit, however, mostly replaced the older word during the 19th century after coney became a vulgarism by analogy to the word
cunt (widely considered vulgar) due to their similar pronunciation. When coney was used to refer to rabbits, its pronunciation was changed to (rhymes with "phoney"), from the original (rhymes with "honey") because of this.Shipley, Joseph Twadell, The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, JHU Press, 1984, p.129Carney, Edward, A survey of English spelling, Routledge, 1994, p.469Morton, Mark, Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities, Insomniac Press, 2004, p.251Allen & Burridge, Forbidden Words, Cambridge University Press, 2006, p.242 More recently, the term kit has been used to refer to a young rabbit. A group of young rabbits is referred to as a kindle. Young hares are called leverets, and this term is sometimes informally applied to any young rabbit. Male rabbits are called bucks and females does. A group of rabbits or hares is often called a fluffle in parts of Northern
Canada.
In culture and literature
Rabbits are often used as a symbol of
fertility or rebirth, and have long been associated with
spring and
Easter as the
Easter Bunny. The species' role as a prey animal also lends itself as a symbol of innocence, another Easter connotation.
Additionally, rabbits are often used as symbols of playful
sexuality, which also relates to the human perception of innocence, as well as its reputation as a prolific breeder.
Folklore and mythology
The rabbit often appears in folklore as the
trickster archetype, as he uses his cunning to outwit his enemies.
- In Aztec mythology, a pantheon of four hundred rabbit gods known as Centzon Totochtin, led by Ometotchtli or Two Rabbit, represented fertility, parties, and drunkenness.
- In Central Africa "Kalulu" the rabbit is widely known as a tricky character, getting the better of bargains.
- In Chinese literature, rabbits accompany Chang'e on the Moon. Also associated with the Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year), rabbits are also one of the twelve celestial animals in the Chinese Zodiac for the Chinese calendar. It is interesting to note that the Vietnamese lunar new year replaced the rabbit with a cat in their calendar, as rabbits did not inhabit Vietnam.
- In the folklore of the United States, a rabbit's foot is frequently carried as an amulet, and is often used on keychains, where it is thought to bring luck. The practice derives from the system of African-American folk magic called hoodoo.
- In Japanese tradition, rabbits live on the Moon where they make mochi, the popular snack of mashed sticky rice. This comes from interpreting the pattern of dark patches on the moon as a rabbit standing on tiptoes on the left pounding on an usu, a Japanese mortar (See also: Moon rabbit).
- In Jewish folklore, rabbits (shfanim שפנים) are associated with cowardice, a usage still current in contmporary Israeli spoken Hebrew (similar to English colloquial use of "chicken" to denote cowardice).
- A Korean myth similar to the Japanese counterpart presents rabbits living on the moon making rice cakes (Tteok in Korean).
- In Native American Ojibwe mythology, Nanabozho, or Great Rabbit, is an important deity related to the creation of the world.
- A Vietnamese mythological story portrays the rabbit of innocence and youthfulness. The Gods of the myth are shown to be hunting and killing rabbits to show off their power.
On the
Isle of Portland in Dorset, UK, the rabbit is said to be unlucky and speaking its name can cause upset with older residents. This is thought to date back to early times in the quarrying industry, where piles of extracted stone (not fit for sale) were built into tall rough walls (to save space) directly behind the working quarry face; the rabbit's natural tendency to burrow would weaken these "walls" and cause collapse, often resulting in injuries or even death.
"Taushan Tepe" (Rabbit Hill) was the Turkish name of
Kabile,
Bulgaria.
The name rabbit is often substituted with words such as “long ears” or “underground mutton”, so as not to have to say the actual word and bring bad luck to oneself. It is said that a public house (on the island) can be cleared of people by calling out the word rabbit and while this was very true in the past, it has gradually become more fable than fact over the past 50 years.
Other fictional rabbits
The rabbit as
trickster appears in American popular culture; for example the
Br'er Rabbit character from African-American folktales and
Disney animation; and the
Warner Bros. cartoon character
Bugs Bunny.
Anthropomorphized rabbits have appeared in a
host of works of film, literature, and technology, notably the
White Rabbit and the
March Hare in
Lewis Carroll's
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; in the popular novels
Watership Down, by
Richard Adams (which has also been made into a movie) and
Rabbit Hill by
Robert Lawson, as well as in
Beatrix Potter's
Peter Rabbit stories.
Urban legends
It was commonly believed that
pregnancy tests were based on the idea that a rabbit would die if injected with a
pregnant woman's
urine. This is not true. However, in the 1920s it was discovered that if the urine contained the
hCG, a hormone found in the bodies of pregnant women, the rabbit would display ovarian changes. The rabbit would then be killed to have its
ovaries inspected, but the death of the rabbit was not the indicator of the results. Later revisions of the
test allowed technicians to inspect the ovaries without killing the animal. A similar test involved injecting
Xenopus frogs to make them lay eggs, but animal tests for pregnancy have been made obsolete by faster, cheaper, and simpler modern methods.
Classifications
Rabbits and hares were formerly classified in the order
Rodentia (rodent) until 1912, when they were moved into a new order
Lagomorpha. This order also includes
pikas.
Order
Lagomorpha
- Family Leporidae
- Genus Pentalagus
- Genus Bunolagus
- Genus Nesolagus
- Genus Romerolagus
- Genus Brachylagus
- Genus Sylvilagus
- Forest Rabbit, Sylvilagus brasiliensis
- Dice's Cottontail, Sylvilagus dicei
- Brush Rabbit, Sylvilagus bachmani
- San Jose Brush Rabbit, Sylvilagus mansuetus
- Swamp Rabbit, Sylvilagus aquaticus
- Marsh Rabbit, Sylvilagus palustris
- Eastern Cottontail, Sylvilagus floridanus
- New England Cottontail, Sylvilagus transitionalis
- Mountain Cottontail, Sylvilagus nuttallii
- Desert Cottontail, Sylvilagus audubonii
- Omilteme Cottontail, Sylvilagus insonus
- Mexican Cottontail, Sylvilagus cunicularis
- Tres Marias Rabbit, Sylvilagus graysoni
- Genus Oryctolagus
- Genus Poelagus
- Three other genera in family, regarded as hares, not rabbits
See also
References
External links
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