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European Rabbit
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The European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a species of rabbit native to south west Europe (Spain and Portugal). It has been widely introduced elsewhere often with devastating effects on local biodiversity. However, its decline in its native range (caused by the diseases myxomatosis and rabbit calicivirus as well as over-hunting and habitat loss) has caused the decline of its highly dependent predators, the Iberian Lynx and the Spanish Imperial Eagle.
Portuguese National Authorities (ICNB) have classified the rabbit as Near Threatened in Portugal, whilst Spanish authorities recently re-classified the rabbit as Vulnerable in Spain.
Rabbits are known by many names.
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Encyclopedia
The European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a species of rabbit native to south west Europe (Spain and Portugal). It has been widely introduced elsewhere often with devastating effects on local biodiversity. However, its decline in its native range (caused by the diseases myxomatosis and rabbit calicivirus as well as over-hunting and habitat loss) has caused the decline of its highly dependent predators, the Iberian Lynx and the Spanish Imperial Eagle.
Portuguese National Authorities (ICNB) have classified the rabbit as Near Threatened in Portugal, whilst Spanish authorities recently re-classified the rabbit as Vulnerable in Spain.
Rabbits are known by many names. Young rabbits are known by the names bunny, kit, or kitten. A male rabbit is called a buck, and a female rabbit is called a doe. A group of rabbits is known as a colony or a nest. Colloquially, a rabbit may be referred to as a "coney" or a "bunny", though the former is archaic.
The European Rabbit is well-known for digging networks of burrows called warrens, where it spends most of its time when not feeding. Unlike the related hares (Lepus), rabbits are altricial, the young being born blind and furless, in a fur-lined nest in the warren, and they are totally dependent upon their mother.
Physical description
The European Rabbit is a small, grey-brown mammal ranging from 34-45 cm (13-18 inches) in length, and is approximately 1.3-2.2 kg (3-5 lb) in weight. As a lagomorph, it has four sharp incisors (two on top, two on bottom) that grow continuously throughout its life, and two peg teeth on the top behind the incisors, 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, a rabbit's hind feet have a thick padding of fur to dampen the shock of rapid hopping. Their toes are long, and are webbed to keep from spreading apart as the animal jumps.
Rabbit behaviour in the wild
Rabbits are gregarious, social animals, living in medium-sized colonies known as warrens. Rabbits are largely crepuscular, being most active around dawn and dusk, although they are not infrequently seen active during the day. Rabbits are essentially mixed-feeders, both grazing and browsing, but grass is their primary food source.
The rabbit mating system is rather complex. Dominant males exhibit polygyny, whereas lower-status individuals (males and females) often form monogamous breeding relationships. Dominance hierarchies exist in parallel for both males and females, although dominant females are usually the mates of the dominant male. Males show considerable investment in the welfare of young, although much of this aspect of rabbit behaviour is poorly understood.
Rabbits can be extremely aggressive in the wild, and competition between males can often lead to severe injury and death. Although hostile displays are used, and males often squirt urine on challengers as a form of territorial marking, the most common response to a challenge is immediate attack. Rabbits use their powerful back legs as weapons, kicking at an opponent's underside, as well as biting and scratching with the front paws.
Rabbit burrows are excavated primarily by the female (doe), and usually during pregnancy. The doe digs short, blind tunnels as nesting stops, and is probably responsible as well for the excavation of most of the connecting tunnels.
Much of the modern research into wild rabbit behaviour was carried out in the 1960s by two research centres. One was the naturalist Ronald Lockley who maintained a number of large enclosures for wild rabbit colonies, with observation facilities, in Orielton in Pembrokeshire. Apart from publishing a number of scientific papers, he popularised his finding in a book The Private Life of the Rabbit., which is credited by Richard Adams as having played a key role in his gaining "a knowledge of rabbits and their ways" that was espoused in the novel Watership Down. The other group was the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia where Mykytowycz & Myers performed numerous studies of the social behaviour of wild rabbits. Since the onset of myxomatosis and the decline of the significance of the rabbit as an agricultural pest, few large scale studies have been performed and many aspects of rabbit behaviour are still poorly understood.
Humans' relationship with rabbits
Humans' relationship with the European (sometimes called true) rabbit was first recorded by the Phoenicians earlier than 1000 BC, when they termed the Iberian Peninsula i-shfaním (literally, the land of the hyraxes). This phrase is pronounced identically in modern Hebrew: i meaning island and shafan meaning hyrax; shfaním is the plural form. Phoenicians called the local rabbits hyraxes because hyraxes resemble rabbits in some ways, and were probably more common than rabbits in their native land (the Levant) at the time. Hyraxes, like rabbits, are not rodents. According to one theory, Romans converted the phrase i-shfaním to its Latin form, Hispania, which evolved into the modern Spanish word España, English Spain, and such other variations of modern languages. The precise meaning of shafan remains unclear, but the balance of opinion appears to indicate that the hyrax is indeed the intended meaning.
The European Rabbit is the only species of rabbit to be domesticated. All pet breeds of rabbits, such as dwarf lops and angoras, are of this species. However, rabbits and humans interact in many different ways beyond domestication. Rabbits are an example of an animal that is treated as food, pet, and pest by members of the same culture. Urbanized European Rabbits descended from pets have become pest problems in some cities. For instance, the world's northernmost population of the species is now hosted by Helsinki, Finland, with an estimated 2500 animals at the end of 2006 and 5000 in autumn, 2007. Finland's native lagomorphs are the European Hare and the Mountain Hare.
The European Rabbit as an exotic pest
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