European Rabbit
Range:
Europe (native range); wild form introduced to Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South America; domesticated forms found worldwide
Habitat:
Various habitats, including woodlands, rocky deserts, fields, gardens ...
EUROPEAN RABBIT
Able to adapt to almost any type of habitat, the sociable European rabbit lives in underground colonies that can be very large. So great are their numbers that they are considered pests in many parts of their range.
HABITS ...
European Rabbit Behaviour
No observations regarding European Rabbit behavior have been submitted to the database yet.
Interesting Facts about European Rabbits ...
European rabbits are gregarious, territorial animals. If soil conditions and forage supply permit, they prefer to live in groups in large, complex burrow systems (warrens). A typical colony consists of six to ten adults of both sexes.
European Rabbit
Oryctolagus cuniculus
Widely introduced in the 1920s and 1930. Feral populations may still exist on some Boston Harbor islands.
The European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a species of rabbit native to south west Europe (Spain and Portugal). It has been widely introduced elsewhere often with devastating effects on local biodiversity.
The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a species of rabbit native to southern Europe. Because of its extreme abundance in the Iberian Peninsula, Phoenicians chose the name Spain after it.
While the European rabbit is the best-known species, it is probably also the least typical, as there is considerable variability in the natural history of rabbits. Many rabbits dig burrows, but cottontails and hispid hares do not.
The New World genus Sylvilagus includes the many species of cottontail rabbit, which resemble the European rabbit in appearance, as well as the marsh rabbit and swamp rabbit (Sylvilagus palustris and S. aquaticus, respectively), ...
The Iberian lynx eats European rabbits almost exclusively (93% of prey by weight during the summer), with approximately one rabbit per day needed to fulfill energy requirements.
Phoenician sailors visiting the coast of Spain circa 1100s BC, mistaking the European rabbit for the rock hyrax Procavia capensis from their native homeland, gave it the name i-shepan-ham.
When European rabbits were first exposed to the virus, the effect was devastating; in some areas the rabbit population was virtually wiped out.
This decrease was largely due to a combination of hunting by guano mine workers and plume hunters followed by the introduction of European rabbits, which nearly wiped out all of Laysan Island's vegetation.
The original rabbits were European rabbits, but there are now many breeds and colours of domestic rabbits.
Domestic rabbits are descended from the Old World rabbit, a wild species from Europe still hunted for meat. Both wild European rabbits and domestic rabbits belong to the genus Oryctolagus, and the species cuniculus.
Most cottontails are not territorial, but Swamp Rabbits (and European rabbits) are: males mark their territory by "chinning," using pheromones from a gland on the chin to scent-mark. A home range can encompass up to 20 acres.
The introduced European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) also impacts the eastern barred bandicoot by reducing habitat through excessive grazing, possibly excluding bandicoots from favoured shelter areas, and perhaps competing for food.
 See also: Rabbit, Hare, Deer, Fox, Burro
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