European Rabbits are not as many as they were once. Learn about this particular breed and also some general information on a rabbit's life.
Rabbits dig burrows and live in them. They have a method of constructing exit holes, side-galleries and a tunnel network. There are chambers at ends of long and narrow passages. The rabbits are very clean even though they will eat their feces and re-ingest it. Territories are marked by secretions that smell very strong from the submadibular glands. The males are the main ones who establish these scents. He will put this scent on all rabbits in his territory.
Rabbits normally are nocturnal and are not usually seen out of the burrow during the daylight hours; they will hide in brush to be undetected. These rabbits will eat bark, leaves, branchletes, berries, fruit, seeds and grain. They do not seem to know when to stop eating as they are able to strip any given area bare. The teeth consist of four incisors in the upper jaw, with one pair of teeth behind the other. These teeth have enamel and grow one-tenth of an inch in a week. As they are used old teeth wear down and new growth occurs so they continue to eat aggressively. They nibble at moist or wet grass and do not need lots of water as other animals do.
Rabbits have a double digestive process that is called refection. The food passes twice through the intestine making two types of droppings. One form is dry that is voided during the day and the one that is voided at night is moist encased with mucus. The ones with mucus will contain two times the protein and three times as much bacteria. The rabbits will inject the freshly dropped pellets without chewing. Vitamin B1 is produced by the bacteria. It is necessary for the young to digest these pellets to avoid convulsions.
There is a ritual between the male and female rabbits as the male pursue the female from fifty feet. He appears not to be in a rush to mate with the female. He will do a ritual dance, edging forward, with his hind feet rigid. He will turn around from the female, take a few steps, then repeat the action for perhaps four to five times; the male rabbit will then walk up near the female at a distance of three feet. This seems to increase stimulation of the female as she is able to smell his scent by secretions of his inguinal glands as he lets her see his white rump. He then sprays her with his urine that can make her become tender or turn away. There is a certain display of tenderness with the male and female looking at one another, licking and rubbing are included in this time of mating. The sexual act is almost without motion and takes sometimes more than thirty minutes. During this time males will fight against each other, squirt urine and even try to castrate one another with their sharp teeth. Sometimes one male will have his genitalia gnawed.
The gestation period before birth is usually thirty-one days. The female delivers from four to twelve rabbits and the births occur up to six times during a year. Babies are born during the night as it increases the survival of the litter. There is no blood loss during delivery and the mother eats the placenta, birth membranes, bites and snaps the umbilical cord. Babies are cared for in the burrow due to a chimney-like aperture leading to the surface of the ground making air circulation possible. The female makes a low murmuring noise as she nurses her young baby rabbits. The rabbits are deaf, blind and naked at birth. At one year they are considered adult rabbits and can mate and produce young at eight months.
Ovulation in the female is triggered by copulation and does not happen in any regular intervals. Even sterile rabbits will copulate, which is not readily done in mammals. In the female an embryo may not, in some cases, develop normally but stay in the womb. The embryo will be reabsorbed, and it does not affect the rest of the litter.
Predators sometimes find the burrows and destroy litters. Water can also invade the burrow. This develops a sort of balance as the presence of the privileged ranks, subordinates, and class distinctions help for survival of the rabbit population.
An interesting rabbit breed, the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), also has an interesting story behind it. It came from the Mediterranean maquid. This rabbit may have originated in Spain but some say it originated in North Africa. The class of the European rabbit is Mammalia, order is Lagomorpha and the family is Leporidae. The weight will average approximately five pounds with the length being up to eighteen inches. The tail will measure a little over three inches. The adult rabbit is somewhat smaller than the hare as the legs and ears are shorter. The nose has a sharp point. Colors are usually greyish-yellow with a reddish neck and a black tail.
In Australia these rabbits were brought to countrysides by British settlers to live among the green grass but also for hunting purposes. The rabbits kept multiplying until they were everywhere. Large groups of these rabbits were stripping the land and farming animals were deprived of natural foods. Even when new plants came up from the ground the rabbits ate them quickly and woodlands were destroyed. The farmers set traps and even hunted them to no avail as they kept on growing in ranks. Predators were brought in to perhaps limit the number of rabbits but the rabbits outran most of these carnivores. After this action, a deadly virus called myxomatois was brought in to change the amount of rabbits in the country. This is a virus that is very contagious and is transmitted from one animal to another. It is also carried by the mosquito. Once caught the virus causes swelling mostly around the eyes. Deformation of the face occurs and the ears begins to droop. Death occurs in just a few days. For this virus to spread it depends on plentiful rainfall because mosquitoes breed best under moist conditions. The first year the virus did not spread as there was not much rainfall but in the second year almost ninety- nine percent of the rabbits were destroyed.
After the rapid destruction of the rabbit there was a change in vegetation; plants began to grow and farmers could feed cattle again. The virus was very cruel, but it was thought to be necessary. The cost to the rabbit population was devastating as the population was also reduced. This reduced population caused many predators to change hunting habits and looked toward capturing and killing other animals. New rabbits were brought into the area but the virus was so strong that most developed the disease and were destroyed.
