Rabbit Rabbit Rennet Category="Animals kept as pets"Category="Leporids"Category="Meat"
For other uses, see Rabbit (disambiguation).

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Rabbit
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Desert Cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Lagomorpha
Family:Leporidae
Genera
Pentalagus
Bunolagus
Nesolagus
Romerolagus
Brachylagus
Sylvilagus
Oryctolagus
Poelagus

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Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae, found in many parts of the world. There are seven different genera in the family classified as rabbits, including the European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), cottontail rabbits (genus Sylvilagus; 13 species), and the Amami Rabbit (Pentalagus furnessi, an Endangered species on Amami Oshima, Japan). There are many other species of rabbit, and these, along with cottontails, pikas and hares make up the Order Lagomorpha.

Hares

Rabbits are distinguished from the related hares in that they are Altricial, having young that are born blind and hairless; many also live underground in burrows.

For jackrabbits, which are actually hares, in the genus Lepus, see Hare.

Male and female rabbits

A male rabbit is called a Buck, and a female is called a Doe. A baby rabbit is called a kit, which is short for kitten.

Bunnies

Rabbits are often affectionately referred to as "bunny rabbits", or simply "bunnies".

Size and weight

Rabbits vary in size and weight. As a lagomorph, they have 4 sharp incisors (2 on top, 2 on bottom) that grow continuously throughout their life, and two peg teeth on the top behind the inscisors, dissimilar to those of rodents (which have only 2 each, top and bottom). Rabbits have long ears, large hind legs, and short fluffy tails. Rabbits move by hopping, using their long and powerful hind legs. To facilitate quick movement, rabbit hind feet have a thick padding of fur to dampen the shock of rapid hopping. Their 4 toes are long, and are webbed to keep them from spreading apart as they jump. They have 5 digits on their front paws. Depending on the species of the rabbit, one can reach a speed of 15-20 m/s (35-45 mph). Young rabbits appear to 'walk', instead of hopping.

They are well-known for digging networks of burrows, called warrens, where they spend most of their time when not feeding. Rabbits are also well-known for their advanced breeding rate, another factor which differentiates them from hares; in theory, a doe can produce from two to eight live young per month (approx. every 32 days), during the first half of the year, although a more common rate is half that. /rabbit.htm] In contrast, hares usually produce three or four live young, during the middle of the year. The reason for rabbit's rapid breeding is that they are induced ovulators. The releasing of eggs/ova in females is triggered by copulation, not by a cycle of hormones as in humans.

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Man's relationship with rabbits

Man’s relationship with the European or ‘true’ rabbit was first recorded by the Phoenicians over 1,000 years BC, when they termed the Iberian peninsula ‘i-shephan-im’ (literally, ‘the land of the rabbit’), which the Romans converted to the Latin form, Hispania, and hence the modern word Spain

The European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is the only species of rabbit to be domesticated. All pet breeds of rabbits - such as dwarf lops, angoras, etc. - are of this species. However, rabbits and people interact in many different ways beyond Domestication. Rabbits are an example of an Animal which is treated as food, pet and pest by the same culture.

When used for food, rabbits are both hunted and raised for meat. Snares or guns along with dogs are usually employed when catching wild rabbits for food. In many areas rabbits are also raised for meat, a practice called Cuniculture. Rabbit pelts are sometimes used as part of accessories, such as scarves. This is not really an efficient practice due to the small sizing of the rabbits, and the sheer amount of food that one requires. Rabbits are also very good producers of manure; their urine, being high in nitrogen, makes lemon trees very productive. Their milk may also be of great medicinal (see links below) or nutritional benefits due to its high protein content.

There are a number of health issues associated with the use of rabbits for meat, one of which is Tularemia or Rabbit Fever. Another is so-called Rabbit starvation, due to the either the low fat content of rabbit meat or amino acid defficiencies in rabbit meat and sythesis limitations in human beings.

Domestic rabbits

Provided they are well cared for, rabbits make friendly and playful pets. They are widely kept throughout the world, both indoors and out. Rabbits kept indoors are typically healthier and more social than rabbits kept outdoors. Housed indoors and provided with adequate damage-proofing (especially of electrical cables), rabbits are relatively safe from predators, disease, and temperature extremes. Rabbits kept outdoors must be provided with shelter that is heated in winter and shaded in summer. Domesticated rabbits cannot safely endure temperatures below 15 and above 32 degrees Celsius. Veterinarians specializing in rabbits advise that their diet consist of hay, leafy green vegetables, water, and small amounts of pellets.

Rabbits are crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk; rabbit owners find that these times correspond nicely with their working days. As prey animals, rabbits behave differently from predator companion animals such as cats and dogs. For example, they have lower 'running expenses', and do not tolerate games of chase. Although well known for hopping, rabbits' spines are inflexible and delicate and they dislike being handled. For these reasons, they are better suited for older teens and adults than for children.

The domestic rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) originated from the European wild rabbit.

Environmental problems with rabbits

Rabbits have also been a source of environmental problems when introduced into the wild by humans (see Rabbits in Australia for details of it as a pest species in that country). Because of their appetites, and the rate at which they breed, wild rabbit depredation can prove problematic for agriculture. Gassing, barriers (fences), shooting, snaring and ferreting have been used to control rabbit populations, but the most effective is diseases such as Myxomatosis ('myxo' for short), 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, this could create a population boom, since those diseases are the major threats to the rabbits' survival.

Classification

Rabbits and hares were formerly classified in the order Rodentia until 1912, when they were moved into a new order Lagomorpha. This order, in addition to containing rabbits and hares, also includes the pikas.

ORDER LAGOMORPHA

Rabbits in culture and literature

Rabbits are often used as a symbol of Fertility. It is possibly as a consequence of this that they have been associated with Easter as the Easter Bunny. The species' role as a prey animal also lends itself as a symbol of innocence as an animal that seems to wish harm on no one, another Easter connotation. In addition, the animal is often used as a symbol of playful sexuality, which plays off of its perceived image of innocence, as well as its reputation as a prolific breeder (see Playboy Bunny).

It is also a common folklore archetype of the Trickster who uses his cunning to outwit his enemies. The most common example of this is Br'er Rabbit from African-American folktales; by extension the Warner Brothers Cartoon character Bugs Bunny also typifies this image.

Anthropomorphic rabbits have appeared in a host of works of film and literature, most notably the White Rabbit in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; in the popular novel Watership Down, by Richard Adams; and in Beatrix Potter's works such as Peter Rabbit. Rabbits have also appeared in Monty Python's Holy Grail, where the Monster of Caer Bannog, seemingly an innocuous white rabbit, guarded the cave to the Holy Grail.

It is commonly believed that a rabbit, if injected with a woman's urine, will expire if the woman were pregnant. This is not true. However, in the 1920s it was discovered that if the injected urine contained the hormone hCG, a hormone found in the urine of pregnant women, the rabbit would display ovarian changes. The rabbit would indeed need to 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 euthanizing the rabbit.

There is a rabbit among the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. See Rabbit (zodiac).

Rabbit feet are considered lucky and fake rabbit feet are often sold as cheap trinkets. It also often leads to the humourous note that the rabbit itself was not lucky to lose them.

In Japanese tradition, rabbits live on the Moon where they make Mochi - a popular sticky snack. A pop culture manifestation of this tradition can be found in the character known as Sailor Moon, whose name is Usagi, Japanese for "rabbit". In Chinese literature, rabbits also accompany Chang'e on the Moon.

See also

External links

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Wikibooks Cookbook has more about this subject:
Rabbit