Rabbits

[00:00:00] Alex Re: Hello, welcome to On Wildlife. I'm your host Alex Re, on this podcast, we bring the wild to you. We take you on a journey into the life of a different animal every month, and I guarantee you, you're gonna come out of here knowing more about your favorite animal than you did before. This month we're jumping into an episode about a small mammal that's universally adored.

[00:00:24] You can see them portrayed all throughout books, TV shows, and movies. I. And their amazing anatomy allows them to adapt to tons of different habitats. A lot of people even own them as pets. So get ready to hop as we talk about rabbits.

[00:00:58] There are 29 different rabbit species and they belong to the order laora in Latin, Lagos means hair spelled HARE, as in the animal. Morfa means shaped, so laora means hair shaped. And although rabbit and hair are kind of used interchangeably, they're actually two different animals. A hair is usually larger with longer ears than a rabbit.

[00:01:26] Now rabbits can be found almost everywhere in the world. They're on every continent except Antarctica, and they can live in a variety of different habitats, including grasslands, woodlands, and places where humans have made an impact like farms and backyards. One of the most common species in North America is the Eastern cottontail, which can be found all over the eastern United States.

[00:01:52] And there are some really interesting species of rabbit that you may have never heard of before, like the volcano rabbit. They're the second smallest rabbit species in the world weighing in at only a pound. They get their name because they're only found living on the slopes of volcanoes In Mexico, the Sumatran striped rabbit is one of the rarest rabbit species in the world.

[00:02:16] Found only in southwestern Sumatra. Only a few pictures have ever been captured of them, and they have really interesting coloration with reddish brown fur and black stripes. The European rabbit is also really cool because it is the ancestor to all domestic rabbits. So if you or someone you know has a pet rabbit, their lineage will point back to this species.

[00:02:42] And rabbits are kind of like dogs in the sense that there are a whole bunch of different breeds, but they're all the same species. There are 50 recognized rabbit breeds, all with different characteristics like their fur color, ear length, and position, eye color and size. Speaking of which, the largest breed is called the Flemish Giant, and some individuals can reach 50 pounds in weight.

[00:03:08] Rabbits usually live for about nine years, and domestic rabbits in captivity can live for about 12 years. Now I wanna give you a challenge before we take our break. What kind of food do you think rabbits eat? Are they carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores? I'll let you know right after the break

[00:03:39] today. I wanna give a shout out to Trey from Colorado. His favorite animal is an armadillo. We actually did an episode on them a while back, and they're really cool. Did you know that armadillos are good swimmers and can hold their breath for up to six minutes?

[00:04:06] Okay, we're back. If you guess that rabbits are herbivores, you'd be correct. They can eat a variety of grasses and seeds, and you may have the assumption that they're constantly eating carrots too, but they should really only be eating them in small amounts because they can be high in sugars and starches.

[00:04:26] As you may know from some of our other herbivore episodes. Grass is not the easiest food to digest. Rabbits have adapted certain features and behaviors to combat this. First of all, their digestive tract is really large compared to their body size. This ensures that they're taking as many nutrients from the grass as they can.

[00:04:48] They also have another behavior that we might think of as gross, but it helps them get more nutrients from their food. It's called Cop Fiji. This basically means that they eat their own poop. They excrete two different types of feces, hard pellets, and soft pellets, which are made in different parts of the digestive tract.

[00:05:10] They'll eat the soft pellets in order to gain additional nutrients that they may have missed during the first round of digestion. And just like a lot of other animals that eat grass, rabbits have to spend a lot of their time eating so that they have enough sustenance to survive that nonstop Chewing can really wear down a rabbit's teeth, but that's actually a good thing for them because their teeth never stop growing.

[00:05:35] They have an open root system, meaning that they're able to replace the worn down parts of their teeth, and rabbit owners have to be very careful about this problem because if rabbits don't get enough fiber in their diet, their teeth can get to be too long and actually cause damage in the mouth. A rabbit's front teeth are called incisors, which help to chop up grass, and their back teeth are called molars, which help to break down the grass even further.

[00:06:04] So we've talked a lot about what rabbits eat, but what about the animals that eat them a. The list is a pretty long one. Some of a rabbit's, top predators are foxes, hawks, wolves, snakes, and so on, and that means rabbits need to have some adaptations to avoid being eaten. The first way to do that is to be able to see or hear a predator creeping up on you.

[00:06:28] Well, because of the way that a rabbit's eyes are positioned, they pretty much have a 360 degree view of their surroundings all the time. They can see almost completely behind their backs. They only have two blind spots, one directly in front of them and one directly behind them. This comes with some drawbacks too, because they don't have the best depth perception.

[00:06:52] So they'll do something called para laing, which is moving their head back and forth to get a better picture of how far away an object is. They also have three different eyelids, which enables them not to have to blink as often as we do, and it allows them to sleep with their eyes open, which they'll do every now and then.

[00:07:13] You can never be too careful when there's predators around every corner. One feature that you'll notice about rabbits is their large ears. These are great for directing sound into their eardrums, enabling them to hear a wide variety of sounds that we can't. They hear frequencies much lower and much higher than humans can.

[00:07:34] And they're also able to move their ears independently of each other so they can pinpoint two different sounds at the same time. It's a really great way for them to know exactly what's going on around them so they can watch out for any threats. I. You may have seen domestic rabbits with floppy ears that don't stand up straight.

[00:07:54] They're called lop eared rabbits. This trait was bred in rabbits because humans think it's cute, but it can actually result in health problems. And many lop eared rabbits are hard of hearing or even deaf because the sound is being blocked instead of being funneled. So what happens when a rabbit encounters a predator?

[00:08:15] If there's a predator in sight, a rabbit will oftentimes stay completely still hoping that they'll blend in with their surroundings and go unnoticed. A lot of rabbits have grayish or brownish fur that blends in really well with their environment. If that doesn't work, they're able to jet away at high speeds.

[00:08:35] They can sprint an average of 30 miles an hour, which is extremely fast. This is thanks to their powerful hind legs, which are really muscular and able to thrust them forward with a lot of force. Interestingly, they'll often run away in a zigzag pattern instead of just running a straight path. Scientists have actually found that the zigzag pattern is more effective in escaping a predator because it throws off their angle of attack.

[00:09:05] Rabbit's, spines are also very flexible, which allows them a greater range of motion when running away. And if a rabbit is actually caught, then they'll go into a state of tonic immobility, which basically means playing dead. This can cause a predator to loosen their hold on them so that they can get away.

[00:09:26] But where do rabbits run off to when escaping a predator? We will talk about that and more right after our last break

[00:09:45] time for today's trivia question, out of the animals listed, which one cannot grow a tail or a leg back. A spider, B Gecko, C Starfish, or D Butterfly.

[00:10:11] The answer is D butterflies.

[00:10:20] Rabbits are crepuscular animals, meaning that they're active at dusk and dawn, and depending on the species, rabbits will construct different homes to hide away In some species, build nests above ground using twigs and grass. Many other species, like the European Rabbit, build their homes in underground burrows called Warrens.

[00:10:42] In extreme cases, these Warrens can hold up to 20 individuals inside of them, but for the most part, rabbits are pretty solitary. They're also territorial. In order to mark their territories, they'll use their scent glands to warn other individuals not to come near them. If another rabbit does come down into their territory, they'll thump their foot as another warning, and if things escalate even further, they'll box each other.

[00:11:11] This means that they'll actually stand on their hind legs and try to hit each other with their front legs. I. The spring and summer is mating season for most rabbits, and they tend to produce a lot of offspring. They can give birth to around seven babies at a time and will reproduce multiple times throughout the year.

[00:11:31] So one female can have over 30 offspring in a single year. Baby rabbits are called kittens and they're basically helpless when they're born. They're blind and have no fur, and they rely on their mother's milk. Interestingly, the mother doesn't really pay much attention to the kittens, only nursing them about once a day.

[00:11:53] Luckily, for the kittens, rabbit milk is one of the most nutritious among all mammals. I. Kittens are weaned off of their mother's milk at around one month old and reach maturity at only four to six months old. After that, they're ready to go off on their own. And just like I say, pretty much every episode, rabbits are extremely important to the ecosystems that they live in.

[00:12:18] One of the main reasons for that being that they're a major prey species for tons of different animals. Many predator populations are on the decline, so they're integral to the survival of those species. Rabbits are also great seed dispersers seeds can get caught in their fur, and as they travel around their environment, they deposit the seeds to other areas.

[00:12:43] Not only that, but they also help to aerate the soil when they dig their burrows, which cycles nutrients and helps the growth of plants. But when they're dropped into an area that they're not native to, they can become a problem. In the mid 18 hundreds, a man named Thomas Austin brought European rabbits over to Australia and released them into his estate so that he could hunt them in just 50 years after this happened, the rabbit population spread across all of Australia and had major impacts on native plants and animals.

[00:13:19] These rabbits overgrazed causing the destruction of land and soil erosion. They also ate the crops of people's farms causing them to lose a lot of money. Rabbits can adapt to many different environments, and if there are no predators to hunt them, their populations can get out of control. Unfortunately, a lot of people view them as pests, even in their native environments because they've been known to eat a lot of crops.

[00:13:46] This has led to people trying to find new ways to kill rabbits so that their farms aren't affected. In the fifties, the Australian government released a virus into the wild rabbit population that killed 99% of all rabbits in Australia, shortly after France did this, and the virus spread to the UK as well.

[00:14:09] Also killing 99% of the UK rabbit population. So humans have done their fair share of herding rabbit populations. We've also caused these animals to lose a lot of their native habitats, and about 20% of all rabbit and hair species are threatened, meaning that their populations are in danger. So although they're able to easily adapt, they can't overcome everything that gets thrown their way, and they still need our help.

[00:14:38] That's why you should check out Rabbit Rescue and Rehab Defenders of Wildlife and the Endangered Species Coalition. Thank you so much for coming on this adventure with me as we explored the world of rabbits. You can find the sources that we use for this podcast and links to organizations that we reference@onwildlife.org.

[00:14:59] You can also email us with any questions at On Wildlife dot podcast@gmail.com, and you could follow us on Instagram at On Wildlife or on TikTok at On Wildlife. And don't forget to tune in next month for another awesome episode, and that's on Wildlife

[00:15:24] Jess Avellino: You've been listening to On Wildlife with Alex Re. On Wildlife provides general educational information on various topics as a public service, which should not be construed as professional financial, real estate, tax, or legal advice. These are our personal opinions only. Please refer to our full disclaimer policy on our website for full details.