98 Fun Facts About Rabbits

What is a baby rabbit commonly called?

A baby rabbit is a kit (or kitten); the doe lines the nest with fur plucked from her own body, a behaviour triggered by a surge of prolactin just before birth.

To which order of mammals do rabbits belong?

Rabbits are small mammals belonging to the family Leporidae, which is part of the order Lagomorpha, an order that also includes hares and pikas. They were once considered rodents but diverged earlier.

Roughly how long is a rabbit's pregnancy?

Rabbit gestation lasts about 30 days (28–31), and with no fixed breeding season a doe can conceive again almost immediately after giving birth, which is how litters of up to a dozen pile up so fast.

What do rabbit owners call the happy, twisting leap into the air a pet rabbit makes when it is pleased?

A binky is a contented rabbit's twisting leap, often with a mid-air head-flick and kicking hind legs; it is usually followed by a burst of fast laps around the room that owners call zoomies.

Which typically docile breed is the largest domestic rabbit, and the ancestor of the Belgian Hare?

The Flemish Giant, whose breed standard was first written in 1893, routinely weighs over 6 kg (13 lb) and is an ancestor of the Belgian Hare and many other breeds.

What forms the primary component of a rabbit's diet?

Hay and grass should make up most of a rabbit's diet; without that fibre the gut can shut down in a potentially lethal condition called gastrointestinal stasis. Timothy, orchard and oat are common hays.

How do rabbits primarily regulate their body temperature, especially in warm conditions?

Rabbits in warmer climates tend to have longer ears for exactly this reason, and the vessels can be opened or shut to dump or conserve heat.

What are the soft, nutrient-rich pellets that rabbits re-ingest called?

Rabbits are hindgut fermenters and produce cecotropes (also known as 'night feces'), which are soft, mucus-covered pellets re-ingested directly from the anus to absorb additional nutrients.

What is the approximate panoramic field of vision for a rabbit?

Nearly 360 degrees, much of it spent scanning overhead for hawks; the trade-off is a blind spot right at the bridge of the nose.

What is a female rabbit called?

A female rabbit is a doe and a male is a buck; a mature doe often grows a dewlap, a fold of skin under the chin, from which she plucks fur to line her nest before kindling.

Which burrow-digging North American species is the world's smallest leporid?

The pygmy rabbit of the Great Basin sagebrush weighs under 500 g and is one of the few rabbits that digs its own burrows; its isolated Columbia Basin population is listed as federally endangered.

How do rabbits communicate danger or annoyance to others?

Thumping a hind foot is the alarm signal: the rabbit slams a hind leg against the ground, a thud that carries through the warren and sends the others bolting for cover.

Rabbits are 'induced ovulators.' What does this mean for their reproductive cycle?

In an induced ovulator, mating itself triggers ovulation rather than a regular cycle; cats and camels work the same way, and combined with a month-long pregnancy it is why rabbits became a byword for breeding.

The earliest known ancestor of rabbits and hares lived 55 million years ago in what is now which country?

Gomphos elkema, a hare-sized animal from roughly 55-million-year-old rocks in Mongolia, is the earliest known ancestor of rabbits and hares; lagomorphs differ from rodents in having a second, peg-like pair of upper incisors.

Which of a rabbit's 28 teeth keep growing throughout its life?

All of them: a rabbit's incisors and cheek teeth are open-rooted and never stop growing, the incisors alone by roughly 2–3 mm a week, so constant chewing of fibrous food is needed to wear them down.

Until the 18th century 'rabbit' meant a young animal only; what was the word for an adult?

Coney, from the Latin cuniculus, was the word for the adult animal, with 'rabbit' reserved for the young until the 1700s; it survives in place names such as Coney Island.

How many toes does a rabbit have on each front paw?

Five: each front paw has four toes plus a small dewclaw, while each hind foot has only four; rabbits have no paw pads, just thick fur on the soles of their feet.

What is a group of rabbits often called?

Colony is the usual term, with 'nest' used too; 'warren' more properly means the cluster of burrows the group lives in.

Which breed's velvety coat comes from a gene that shortens its guard hairs?

The Rex rabbit's plush coat is caused by a recessive gene that keeps the guard hairs no longer than the undercoat, giving a velvet feel; the breed first appeared in France in 1919.

Roughly how long does a well-kept pet rabbit typically live?

A well-kept house rabbit typically lives 8–12 years, far longer than wild cottontails, most of which die in their first year; the record-holder, a Tasmanian rabbit named Flopsy, reached 18.

In which Australian state was Barwon Park, where Thomas Austin released rabbits in 1859?

Thomas Austin's release near Winchelsea, Victoria led to what is described as the fastest spread ever recorded of any mammal anywhere in the world.

Which pathogen was released in Australia in 1950 to cut a rabbit population of some 600 million?

Myxoma virus, released in 1950, knocked numbers down to around 100 million, but genetic resistance let rabbits rebound to 200–300 million by 1991; rabbit calicivirus followed in the 1990s.

Western Australia's No. 1 rabbit-proof barrier, finished in 1907, held which record?

The No. 1 Fence ran 1,833 km north to south and on completion in 1907 was the longest unbroken fence on Earth; all three Western Australian fences together stretched 3,256 km.

The volcano rabbit, one of the world's smallest rabbits, lives on volcanic slopes in which country?

The volcano rabbit, known locally as teporingo or zacatuche, lives only on the slopes of volcanoes near Mexico City such as Popocatépetl; like pikas, it gives high-pitched warning calls rather than thumping.

The dark-furred Amami rabbit, a 'living fossil', is found only on two small islands of which country?

The Amami rabbit survives only on Japan's Amami Oshima and Tokunoshima islands, between Kyushu and Okinawa, as a remnant of ancient rabbits that once lived on the Asian mainland.

The Angora rabbit, bred for its long wool, is said to have originated in which present-day country?

The Angora takes its name from Ankara, capital of Turkey, which was historically known as Angora; the breed became a favourite pet of French royalty in the mid-18th century.

Which novel about rabbits fleeing their doomed warren was rejected seven times before publisher Rex Collings took it on?

Watership Down began as stories Richard Adams told his daughters on car journeys; his debut went on to win the 1972 Carnegie Medal.

Okunoshima, 'Rabbit Island', once housed a secret factory making what?

The Imperial Japanese Army's poison gas plant, built on Okunoshima between 1927 and 1929, produced mustard gas and other agents; the island was even removed from some maps to keep it secret.

In the Vietnamese zodiac, which animal takes the place occupied by the Rabbit in the Chinese zodiac?

Vietnam's zodiac puts the Cat (mèo) in the fourth slot that the Rabbit holds in the Chinese twelve-year cycle, so a Chinese Year of the Rabbit is Vietnam's Year of the Cat.

The Netherland Dwarf rabbit was created by crossing small wild rabbits with which breed?

The Netherland Dwarf was developed in the Netherlands in the early 1900s by crossing small Polish rabbits with small wild rabbits; adults weigh just 1.1 to 2.5 pounds.

Whose vegetable garden does Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit raid?

Peter raids Mr. McGregor's garden and loses his blue jacket and shoes escaping under the gate; his sisters Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail are good little bunnies who stay away.

Which 1940 Tex Avery short is widely considered the first official Bugs Bunny cartoon?

A Wild Hare (July 1940) was the first film to show Bugs and Elmer Fudd in their fully developed forms as tormentor and hunter, and the first in which Bugs asks 'What's up, Doc?'

Rabbits and hares were classified as rodents until which year, when they were moved into their own order?

In 1912 the American palaeontologist James W. Gidley proposed Lagomorpha as a separate order, ending the Linnaean placement of rabbits and hares among the rodents that had stood since 1758.

Medieval French monks reportedly bred rabbits as a 'meat substitute' during which observance?

Lent, with its ban on meat, is the observance reported; monastery warrens in medieval France are credited with much of the rabbit's domestication, and the monks of Champagne are often named as its pioneers.

The European rabbit, ancestor of every domestic breed, is native to which region?

The European rabbit is native to the Iberian Peninsula and south-western France; Roman writers already described Hispania as swarming with them, and the species has since been introduced to hundreds of locations worldwide.

Which sound does a contented rabbit make by gently grinding its teeth?

Tooth-purring is the sound: a relaxed rabbit being stroked gently grinds its teeth, producing a soft vibration owners compare to a cat's purr; loud grinding, by contrast, signals pain.

Which Roman emperor issued coins showing a rabbit beside the personification of Hispania?

Hadrian's coins of the 130s show Hispania as a reclining woman with a rabbit at her feet; the animal was so identified with the province that Catullus called Celtiberia 'cuniculosa', rabbity.

According to Pliny, the Romans prized which rabbit delicacy, called laurices?

Rabbits were raised in large walled colonies whose walls extended underground, alongside enclosures called leporaria.

Which ancient seafaring people may have deliberately introduced the rabbit from Iberia to Africa?

The Phoenicians, who traded along the Iberian coast early in the first millennium BC, may have carried rabbits to north-west Africa; later seafarers spread the species to Italy, England and Ireland.

Which of these is a rabbit physically unable to do?

Rabbits cannot vomit: a tight oesophageal sphincter and one-way gut mean they cannot bring food back up, so a hairball or low-fibre blockage has no way to clear except onward through the intestines.

What is the translucent third eyelid that lets a rabbit rest with its eyes open?

The nictitating membrane, a translucent third eyelid in the inner corner of each eye, sweeps across the cornea to moisten and protect it, which lets a rabbit doze with its eyes open.

Rabbits are 'obligate nasal breathers'. What does that mean?

The epiglottis sits locked over the soft palate except when swallowing, which is also why a rabbit can chew and breathe at the same time.

Domestic rabbit kits open their eyes at roughly what age?

Kits open their eyes at about 10 days old; they are born blind, deaf and nearly hairless, and the doe nurses them only once or twice a day for a few minutes.

In 1994, which country ate the most rabbit meat per person?

Malta's 8.89 kg per head beat Italy's 5.71 kg; China is the largest producer but eats far less per person.

Bugs Bunny's carrot-chewing habit was modelled on a Clark Gable scene in which 1934 film?

In It Happened One Night, Gable's Peter Warne leans on a fence munching a carrot while talking fast; the parody stuck so well that many people now think wild rabbits prefer carrots.

Saying 'rabbit rabbit rabbit' aloud for good luck is traditionally done when?

Saying it first thing on waking on the first day of the month is supposed to bring good fortune for the whole month ahead; 'white rabbits' is a popular variant.

On the Isle of Portland, where the word 'rabbit' is taboo, what is the animal called instead?

'Underground mutton' is the usual stand-in: quarrymen believed rabbits burrowing into spoil heaps loosened the stone ahead of rockfalls, so both the animal and its name came to be seen as bad luck.

'The rabbit died' was once a common euphemism for what?

A positive pregnancy test: in the 1930s Friedman test a woman's urine was injected into a rabbit and its ovaries examined, but the rabbit was killed and dissected whatever the result.

The Aztec Centzon Totochtin were 400 rabbit gods of fertility, parties and what else?

The 400 rabbits were gods of drunkenness, led by Ometochtli, 'Two Rabbit'; their intoxicant was pulque, the fermented agave sap drunk across central Mexico.

The constellation Lepus, the hare, sits immediately south of which constellation?

Lepus lies directly beneath Orion's feet and is often pictured as a hare being chased by the hunter and his dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor.

In the 1950 film Harvey, the invisible rabbit is described as what kind of Celtic creature?

Harvey is a púca (pooka), a shape-shifting spirit of Celtic folklore; Elwood P. Dowd, played by James Stewart, introduces his unseen, over-six-foot friend to everyone in town.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit was 1988's second-highest-grossing film, behind which movie?

Rain Man narrowly beat it; Roger Rabbit took $351.5 million worldwide and won three Oscars plus a Special Achievement Award for Richard Williams's animation direction.

Who provided the uncredited voice of Jessica Rabbit in the 1988 film?

Kathleen Turner, uncredited, spoke Jessica's lines while Amy Irving sang them; Zemeckis had directed Turner in Romancing the Stone, and Jessica's look blended Rita Hayworth, Veronica Lake and Lauren Bacall.

Among German Lutherans, the original Easter Hare played what role for children?

Like Santa's naughty-or-nice list, the hare decided who deserved eggs, and a 1682 German text already described it laying eggs in gardens.

The Energizer Bunny began in 1988 as a parody of which rival's drumming rabbit?

Duracell's 'Drumming Bunny' ad dated from 1973, but its trademark had lapsed by 1988, leaving the door open.

What instrument does the Energizer Bunny beat?

The Energizer Bunny beats a bass drum bearing the Energizer logo; the pink toy also wears sunglasses and blue-and-black striped flip-flops.

The Trix 'Silly Rabbit' debuted in a TV commercial in which year?

The rabbit first appeared in 1959, created by copywriter Joe Harris, who also wrote 'Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!'; the cereal itself had launched in 1954 as a sugared version of Kix.

Who wrote The Velveteen Rabbit, published as a book in 1922?

Margery Williams, an English-born author later known as Margery Williams Bianco, wrote The Velveteen Rabbit as her first children's book; the 1922 first edition was illustrated by William Nicholson.

After his garden raid, Peter Rabbit is put to bed by his mother with what?

Mrs Rabbit doses Peter with a spoonful of chamomile tea because he feels poorly; his better-behaved sisters Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail get bread, milk and blackberries for supper.

How old was Peter Behn, the boy who voiced Thumper in Disney's Bambi?

Peter Behn was just four when he recorded Thumper; his lively delivery turned a minor part into a major one and pushed the whole film toward its young animals.

The critically endangered riverine rabbit is endemic to which African country?

The riverine rabbit is confined to strips of riverside scrub in the central Karoo of South Africa; it is one of Africa's rarest mammals, and females produce only one or two young a year.

The snowshoe hare's boom-and-bust population cycle is famously tied to which predator?

Hudson's Bay Company fur returns spanning decades show Canada lynx numbers rising and falling a year or two behind snowshoe hare numbers on a roughly ten-year cycle, a textbook predator-prey case study.

Mary Toft's 1726 claim to have given birth to rabbits was satirised in 'Cunicularii' by whom?

William Hogarth's 1726 print Cunicularii, or The Wise Men of Godliman in Consultation, mocked the doctors taken in by Toft of Godalming, Surrey, who had fooled Nathaniel St André, surgeon to George I, before confessing.

In 1979, what animal swam 'hissing menacingly' toward Jimmy Carter's fishing boat in Georgia?

It was a swamp rabbit; the Washington Post ran the story on its front page as 'Bunny Goes Bugs: Rabbit Attacks President', and a Jaws parody poster titled 'PAWS' made the rounds.

The White Rabbit mistakes Alice for his housemaid and calls her by what name?

The White Rabbit, flustered about the Duchess's gloves and fan, takes Alice for his housemaid Mary Ann and sends her home to fetch them; Dinah, another option, is Alice's cat.

Which author recorded the Br'er Rabbit tales in the 19th century, narrated by 'Uncle Remus'?

Joel Chandler Harris, an Atlanta journalist, published Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings in 1880, retelling African-American folktales he had heard as a boy on a Georgia plantation.

Miffy, the minimalist picture-book rabbit, was created in 1955 by which Dutch artist?

Dick Bruna drew Miffy (Nijntje in Dutch) with only black outlines and a handful of flat colours; the books have been translated into more than 50 languages.

The Holland Lop was bred from the French Lop and which tiny breed?

Dutch breeder Adriann de Cock crossed the French Lop with the Netherland Dwarf from 1949, later adding English Lop blood to fix the drooping ears; the Holland Lop was recognised in the Netherlands in 1964.

Oolong, a Japanese rabbit who became an early internet celebrity from 1999, was famous for doing what?

Balancing objects on his head was what his owner called 'Head Performance'; the first item, in 1999, was a film canister, later followed by dorayaki pancakes.

Bunnicula, the children's-book rabbit, is suspected of being a vampire because he does what?

The series is narrated by Harold the dog, while Chester the cat is the one convinced the bunny is a monster.

Which Star Trek actor starred in Night of the Lepus, the 1972 film about giant mutant rabbits?

DeForest Kelley, Star Trek's Dr McCoy, starred with Janet Leigh and Stuart Whitman; based on Russell Braddon's novel The Year of the Angry Rabbit, the film used domestic bunnies on miniature sets.

In Zootopia, what is rookie officer Judy Hopps assigned to do on her first day?

Early drafts made fox Nick Wilde the protagonist and Judy merely his sidekick.

In Japan's White Hare of Inaba myth, the hare tricks which animals into lining up as a bridge?

The hare dares the sharks (wani in the Kojiki) to line up so he can count their clan, hops across their backs, then gloats too soon and has his fur torn off for his trouble.

In Chinese folklore, the Moon rabbit Yutu keeps which goddess company?

Yutu, the Jade Rabbit, keeps Chang'e company on the Moon and pounds the elixir of immortality for her with mortar and pestle; in Japan and Korea the rabbit pounds rice cakes instead.

By North American tradition, which foot of a rabbit makes the lucky charm?

The left hind foot is the one; strictures add that the animal should be shot or caught in a cemetery, some say on a rainy Friday, or with a silver bullet.

Which Spanish rice dish traditionally includes rabbit and chicken in its original Valencian form?

Paella valenciana, the original version from the countryside around Valencia, is cooked with rabbit, chicken, green beans and butter beans, sometimes with snails; seafood paella is a later coastal variation.

What is 'Welsh rabbit', a dish first recorded in 1725 that contains no rabbit?

It is melted cheese, often mixed with ale or mustard, served on toast; the joke name came first, and 'rarebit' is a later respelling recorded in Francis Grose's 1785 slang dictionary.

John Updike's Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom was once a high-school star in which sport?

Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom was a high-school basketball star in Mt. Judge, Pennsylvania; in Rabbit, Run (1960) he is 26, demonstrating the MagiPeel kitchen gadget, and bolts from his pregnant wife on impulse.

Marsh rabbit numbers in the Everglades have fallen because of which invasive predator?

Burmese pythons, established in the Everglades since the 1990s, were blamed for most deaths of radio-collared marsh rabbits in a 2015 study; the Lower Keys subspecies is separately threatened by rising seas and development.

A hare less than a year old is called what?

A leveret is a hare in its first year; hares are born furred and open-eyed in a shallow 'form' in the grass, unlike rabbit kits, born blind and naked in a burrow.

The South Sydney Rabbitohs, nicknamed the Bunnies, compete in which sport?

Founded in 1908, they are the most successful club in Australian rugby league history with 21 premierships.

Who voiced Peter in the 2018 live-action/animated film Peter Rabbit?

James Corden voiced Peter, with Domhnall Gleeson as Mr. McGregor and Rose Byrne as Bea; critics disliked its departures from Potter, but it grossed $351 million on a $50 million budget.

Lola Bunny, Bugs's girlfriend, made her first appearance in which 1996 film?

Lola debuted in Space Jam (1996) as the star player Bugs recruits, voiced by Kath Soucie; an earlier love interest, Honey Bunny, had appeared in comics since 1966.

Richard Adams's 1972 rabbit epic is set in which English county?

The real Watership Down is a chalk hill in north Hampshire, south of Newbury; Adams's rabbits cross the actual River Enborne and later escape Efrafa down the River Test on a punt.

In Richard Adams's rabbit epic, the rabbits' own language is called what?

Lapine, the rabbits' tongue, has one word, 'hrair', for every number above four, which is how the runt Fiver gets his name, Hrairoo, 'Little Thousand'.

Who sang 'Bright Eyes', the hit from the 1978 animated film of Richard Adams's rabbit novel?

Art Garfunkel's 'Bright Eyes', written by Mike Batt, spent six weeks at No. 1 in the UK and was the country's best-selling single of 1979.

In the Oscar-winning Knighty Knight Bugs (1958), Yosemite Sam's dragon suffers from what?

The dragon has a cold, and every sneeze sends a jet of flame through Sam's castle; Knighty Knight Bugs is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon to have won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons).

Bugs Bunny's accent comes from which New York City borough?

Mel Blanc based Bugs's wise-guy voice on New York street talk, Brooklyn above all with a dash of the Bronx; 'What's up, Doc?' was schoolboy slang Tex Avery remembered from Texas.

What weapon finally kills the Rabbit of Caerbannog?

The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, lobbed on the count of three (not five, nor two), blows the rabbit to bits in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975); the gag returned in the 2004 musical Spamalot.

Pet rabbits are banned in which Australian state?

Queensland bans pet rabbits under its biosecurity laws, with fines running to tens of thousands of dollars, a legacy of the feral plague wild European rabbits caused; only licensed entertainers such as magicians may keep one.

Myxomatosis reached France in 1952 when an estate owner inoculated how many wild rabbits?

Paul-Félix Armand-Delille's two rabbits were enough: the disease swept France and crossed to Britain the next year.

In 1995 rabbit calicivirus escaped from Australian field trials being run where?

The virus was being trialled in quarantine on Wardang Island, off South Australia's Yorke Peninsula, when it escaped, probably carried by flies; within weeks it was killing rabbits on the mainland, a year before its planned release.

Rabbit hemorrhagic disease was first described in 1984 in Angora rabbits imported to which country?

The Angoras had come from Germany; a newer strain, RHDV2, surfaced in France in 2010 and also kills hares.

Tularemia, a bacterial disease hunters can catch while skinning game, is nicknamed what?

Rabbit fever is the nickname because hunters often catch Francisella tularensis through cuts while skinning infected rabbits and hares; it also spreads by tick and deer-fly bites, and antibiotics such as streptomycin cure it.

The black-tailed jackrabbit of the American West is which kind of animal?

Jackrabbits are hares of the genus Lepus: their young are born furred with their eyes open, and the name is said to come from 'jackass rabbit', after the animal's long, donkey-like ears.

Which species is the most widespread rabbit in North America?

The eastern cottontail's range runs from southern Canada through the eastern and central United States into Mexico, Central America and northern South America, and it has been introduced widely elsewhere.

In US television ads, the Cadbury Bunny does what?

The bunny clucks like a chicken, the joke being that it lays Cadbury Creme Eggs; in 2021 a public tryout crowned Betty, an Australian tree frog, the newest Cadbury Bunny.

Hebrew 'shfanim', rendered as rabbits in early English Bibles, actually refers to which animal?

The rock hyrax is the shafan of Leviticus 11 and Psalm 104, a rock-dweller said to 'chew the cud'; English translators who had never seen one rendered it 'coney', the old word for rabbit.