The old adage that familiarity breeds contempt, couldn’t be more accurate than when talking to gardeners about rabbits. Rabbits, after all, can do all sorts of damage in the garden and small holding, but even these familiar creatures have a little more about them that you might think and like all other wildlife they can be endearing and quite fascinating and worthy of a proper inspection.

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Although it is taken as so much a part of the British countryside, our rabbit, which is formally identified as the European rabbit, is no more a native to Britain than it is to Australia where it causes so much havoc. The Romans brought rabbits here from the continent some 2000 years ago but the species didn’t become established in the wild in Britain until the 12th Century when the Normans cultivated rabbits for their meat and their fur. Our rabbit actually belongs in North Africa and South-western Europe. There are now populations of European rabbits as far north as Iceland and Finland.

Worldwide there are 10 genera of rabbits, all with their own distinct characteristics and habitat needs from the medium sized  Volcano Rabbit of Mexico to the American Cottontail and the Bristly Rabbit of the Indian sub-continent. Most of these rabbits are listed as Vulnerable or Endangered in their native habitats and appear on the Red List of Cites and the IUCN. Even our rabbit which is obviously thriving in its non-native habitats, is now officially classed as Vulnerable in its native Spain and Portugal. The reason for the precarious state of most rabbit populations is habitat loss and the spread of diseases such as myxomatosis.

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The European rabbit is mostly crepuscular (most active at dawn and dusk) but it will also feed during both daylight and darkness if it feels secure. Rabbits live in overlapping populations of individuals and family groups in interconnected burrows that are collectively called a warren.

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Rabbits, so similar to hares in many ways, belong to a completely different genus and display several markedly different characteristics, though there is only one the appears to be common to all members of the genus and that is that all species of rabbit babies, called kits, are born helpless, blind and naked while leverets, baby hares, are born fully furred and with their eyes open. In general hares live fairly solitary lives and nest above ground while rabbits live in colonies and nest in underground burrows, though there are exceptions to both these rules. On the whole hares have longer ears and longer, more powerful, hind legs. Although fast, rabbits rely on their burrows for protection while hares have to rely on speed. 

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While rabbits are linked to many different concepts in the folklore of many cultures, one characteristic that is universally recognised and linked to rabbits, no matter where they are in the world is their very efficient breeding habits. Female European rabbits can have their first litter at only 3 months of age and gestation lasts for an average of 31 days. With an average life span of about 3 years in the wild and with each mating pair producing about 30  offspring every year it quickly amounts to an awful  lot of children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and, well, you get the picture.

A beautiful, though shocking example of this is the case of the introduction of rabbits to Australia. In 1859 24 European rabbits were introduced into the wild by an estate overseer who thought that they might offer a bit of sport for hunting. Those 24 rabbits grew to a truly staggering 10 billion by the 1920’s but following the introduction of various control techniques, including installing rabbit proof fences and bio controls, the population now sits at about 200 million.

Rabbits have excellent eyesight, hearing and sense of smell and though they appear to be silent creatures they do communicate quietly to each other through grunts, groans and sighs and they will scream and squeal when attacked by any of the predators that prey upon them. With all this going from them it is no wonder they do so very well.

 

Rabbits in the garden

No matter how endearing and fluffy is your average rabbit, rabbits and gardens are not a great combination. If you live near open country or common land there is a good chance that you may have the occasional or frequent visit from members of the local warren. The best –some say the only - way to keep your vegetables and flowers safe from rabbits is to either fence the area or - in flower gardens- to protect individual plants. Fences (and gates!) need to be set one foot below ground and angled outwards to stop the rabbits burrowing underneath, and need to be a whopping 4 to 5 feet in height. It is often easier to set a permanent beneath-ground barrier around your beds, and then build moveable grow cages to set over your vulnerable plants. Decorative wire cages can be fashioned to provide protection around lilies and other susceptible ornamentals and wraps can be wound around trees to protect their bark. Repellents are also said to work to some extent, though this can be rather hit and miss.

 

Are rabbits rodents?

Rabbits used to be considered part of the rodent family because, like true rodents, their front teeth keep growing throughout their lives and are worn down as they eat. Unlike true rodents though, rabbits have two sets of incisors. There are other differences too. Because of their dependence on-hard-to-digest cellulose-rich grasses and greenstuffs rabbits, like guinea pigs, have a digestive process that means they digest their food twice. Their food passes through the gut once and is expelled as soft pellets (often inside their burrows) then re-ingested so the maximum amount of nutrients can be extracted and expelled in the hard pellets that are so easily spotted around any rabbit grazing area. There is also the delicate matter of reproduction. Unlike true rodents, but like humans, horses and a few other animals, rabbits lack the penis bone that all rodents possess. With all this to distinguish them rabbits were hoiked out of the Rodentia and popped into their own little order known as Lagomorpha.