European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)

European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), photo by JJ Harrison

Scientific name: Oryctolagus cuniculus

Common name: European rabbit

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Lagomorpha

Family: Leporidae

Other common names: Old World rabbit, domestic rabbit, lapin de garenne, conejo, conejo europeo, conill de bosc, konijn, kaniini, Europäisches wildkaninchen, kaninchen, coniglio selvatico, conilh, lapin, coelho-bravo, Кролик европейский дикий

Measurements: Weigh 1350-2250 g, head-body length is 350-450 mm, and tail length is 40-70 mm.

Description: Brown to grey rabbit with white underparts (including under tail & inner legs) & thin black ear edging.

Native range: Algeria, France, Gibraltar, Morocco, Portugal, & Spain

Introduced to: Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Falkland Islands, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, & United States

Habitat: Prefers oak savannah or scrub with a lot of cover mixed with open areas where they can find food but can live in most habitats if grass is present. Found up to 1500 m elevation.

IUCN conservation status: Near threatened

Movements: After the young disperse (and many don't), they do not leave their territories.

Diet: Grasses & other herbaceous plants.  Will eat bark & twigs of woody plants in a pinch.

Social organisation: They are highly territorial and usually live in groups; in densely populated areas groups usually consist of a dominant male, several females, and potentially a number of subordinate males which live on the outside edges of the group, while in less populated areas groups will often be only 2-3 rabbits, or even solitary animals occasionally.  A typical warren of tunnels is dug which may be up to 3 m underground, with 15 cm tunnels and 30-60 cm high living chambers and may spread to over 45 m long with a series of entrances, although territories of different groups can overlap to form very large warrens composed of huge numbers of smaller groups; for example, one colony of 407 rabbits had 2,080 warren entrances.

Social behaviour: They warn each other about danger by thumping their hind feet on the ground.  Males will fight other males for territories, and females will fight other females for better spots for nursery dens.

Voice/sounds: Generally very quiet, although they scream when caught by predators, make a defensive grunting, and thump their back feet on the ground as an alarm call.  Listen to the grunting here.

Breeding behaviour: The doe (female) either digs an offshoot to an established warren or digs a separate burrow for the den about 1 m long, the entrance of which she fills in with soil every time she leaves.

Breeding season: Breeding peaks in spring, but in ideal climates they may breed for as much as nine months of the year.  They will usually breed again immediately after giving birth, which coupled with its short gestation period gives this species the potential for massive offspring production in comfortable climates.

Number of offspring: 1-14 (usually 4-6)

Gestation period: 28-33 days

Growth of young: Newborns are naked, blind, deaf, weigh ~30-50 g, and ~110-135 mm long.  The doe returns to the nest only once per night for a few minutes, unless the pups make distress calls in which case she will return.  The young open their eyes at 10 days, leave the nest at 20-21 days old, and are then weaned shortly after.  They reach sexual maturity at 3-4 months of age.

Other notes: This is the species from which domesticated rabbits originated.  Although they have been introduced to many countries as a game animal where they have now become a pest species, in their native lands their numbers are decreasing, hence their IUCN conservation status.

Here is a documentary on the European rabbit, with an emphasis on Australia but covering all of its history.  The title scene is rough but it improves quickly after that.

References:

Boyd, I.L.  (1985).  Investment in growth by pregnant wild rabbits in relation to litter size and sex of the offspring.  Journal of Animal Ecology, 54, 137-147.

Chapman, J.A., & Flux, J.E.C.  (1990).  Rabbits, hares and pikas: Status survey and conservation action plan.  Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.

Delibes-Mateos, M., Delibes, M., Ferreras, P., & Villafuerte, R.  (2008).  Key role of European rabbits in the conservation of the Western Mediterranean Basin hotspot.  Conservation Biology, 22, 1106-1117.

Encyclopedia of Life.  (2018).  http://www.eol.org.

Ferreira, C.  (2012).  European rabbit research in the Iberian Peninsula: state of the art and future perspectives.  European Journal of Wildlife Research, 58, 885-895.

Hayssen, V., van Tienhoven, A., & van Tienhoven, A.  (1993).  Asdell's patterns of mammalian reproduction: A compendium of species-specific data.  Ithaca: Comstock Publishing Associates.

International Union for Conservation of Nature.  The IUCN Red List for endangered species. (2018).  http://iucnredlist.org.

Lockley, R.M.  (1975).  The private life of the rabbit.  New York: Avon Books.

Lombardi, L., Fernández, N., Moreno, S., & Villafuerte, R.  (2003).  Habitat-related differences in rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) abundance, distribution, and activity.  Journal of Mammalogy, 84, 26-36.

Nowak, R.  (1991).  Walker's mammals of the world (5th ed.).  John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore.

Palomares, F., Delibes, M., Revilla, E., Calzada, J., & Fedriani, J.M.  (2001).  Spatial ecology of Iberian lynx and abundance of European rabbits in Southwestern Spain.  The Wildlife Society: Amherst, MA.

Rödel, H.G., Landmann, C., Starkloff, A., Kunc, H.P., & Hudson, R.  (2013).  Absentee mothering- not so absent?  Responses of European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) mothers to pup distress calls.  Ethology, 119, 1024-1033.