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Dictionary:
rab·bit (răb'ĭt)  |
To hunt rabbits or hares.
[Middle English rabet, young rabbit, probably from Old French, from Middle Dutch robbe, rabbit.]
rabbiter rab'bit·er n.| Food and Nutrition: rabbit |
Lepus cuniculus; both wild and farmed rabbits are eaten. A 150-g portion is a rich source of protein, niacin, vitamins B2, B6, and B12, selenium, and iron; a source of vitamin B1, zinc, and copper; contains about 12 g of fat, of which about 40% is saturated and 20% mono-unsaturated; supplies 270 kcal (1100 kJ).
| Food Lover's Companion: rabbit |
The domesticated members of the rabbit family (a rodent relation) have fine-textured flesh that is almost totally white meat. They're plumper and less strongly flavored than their wild counterparts. A mature rabbit averages between 3 and 5 pounds, much smaller than its relative the hare (typically between 6 and 12 pounds). Fresh and frozen rabbit is available dressed either whole or cut into pieces. The best will be young and weigh between 2 and 21⁄2 pounds, and should have light-colored flesh. These are the most tender and mild-flavored and can be prepared in any manner suitable for young chicken (such as frying, grilling or roasting). Older or wild rabbits benefit from moist-heat cooking such as braising. See also game animals.
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: rabbit |
For more information on rabbit, visit Britannica.com.
| English Folklore: rabbits |
The idea that rabbits are unlucky is mainly limited to fishermen, who insist that the word ‘rabbit’ must never be uttered at sea, nor the actual animal brought on board; they should be called ‘long-ears’, ‘furry things’, or ‘bob-tailed bastards’ (Gill, 1993: 84-6). There was a similar fear among Dorset quarrymen in the 1950s (Opie and Tatem, 1989: 191). Wild white rabbits might be witches, or death omens (Tongue, 1965: 51; Maple, 1960: 243; Folk-Lore 4 (1893), 258).
Nevertheless, a rabbit's foot carried in the pocket was a lucky charm in the 20th century; examples mounted in silver made in America but sold in England were advertised as ‘the left hind foot of a rabbit killed in a country churchyard at midnight, during the dark of the moon, on Friday the 13th of the month, by a cross-eyed, left-handed, red-headed bow-legged Negro riding a white horse—this we do not guarantee’ (Folk-Lore 19 (1908), 296).
A fairly widespread modern custom among children was first recorded in 1909:
My two daughters are in the habit of saying ‘Rabbits!’ on the first day of each month. The word must be spoken aloud, and be the first word said in the month. It brings luck for that month. Other children, I find, use the same formula. (N&Q10s:11 (1909), 208)
| Columbia Encyclopedia: rabbit |
The European Common Rabbit
The European common rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus, is native to S Europe and Africa, but is now found, in its domestic varieties, throughout the world; wild varieties have also been introduced in some places, such as England. All domestic rabbits, including the so-called Belgian hare, belong to this species. Wild common rabbits are up to 16 in. (41 cm) long and usually weigh 2 to 3 lb (0.9–1.4 kg). They have soft, thick fur, usually grayish brown above and white below. The tail is usually carried upright when the animal runs, exposing the white undersurface. Common rabbits live in elaborate systems of adjoining burrows called warrens. The young are suckled in a special burrow, dug by the mother at a distance from the warren and lined with a nest of her own fur. The entrance to this burrow is plugged with earth when she is away. Domestic rabbits, which may be various colors but are commonly white, are bred for food and for their fur, which is much used in making fur trim and felt. They are also frequently used as laboratory animals and are kept as pets.
New World Rabbits
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), of the S United States. These rabbits do not burrow, although in winter they may shelter in a burrow abandoned by another animal. They usually rest, like hares, in hollows which they make in the ground or in vegetation. The Idaho pygmy rabbit, Brachylagus idahoensis, of the U.S. Great Basin, digs simple burrows. The many North American species called jackrabbit are actually hares, as is the snowshoe rabbit, or varying hare. There are several species of short-eared rabbits in Asia and one, the volcano rabbit, or Mexican pygmy rabbit (Romerolagus diazi), in central Mexico, where it is in danger of extinction.
Reproduction
The reproductive rate of rabbits is notorious. The common rabbit breeds from February to October; its gestation period is 30 days and there are five to eight young in a litter. In most regions its numbers are kept down by its many predators, such as the fox, the badger, and birds of prey. However, when domestic rabbits escaped in Australia, where they had few natural enemies, they ran rampant and stripped the countryside of vegetation in many regions. They were brought partially under control by the artificial introduction of a viral disease, myxomatosis.
Classification
Rabbits are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Lagomorpha, family Leporidae.
| Word Tutor: rabbit |
The other day when I was walking through the woods, I saw a rabbit standing in front of a candle making shadows of people on a tree.
— Steven Wright, Canadian comedian.
| Dream Symbol: Rabbit |
Rabbits symbolize opulent fertility and spirituality. The Easter Bunny bringing rewards of sweetness and gifts to celebrate new life. The magician's hat from which rabbits materialize gives this animal magical associations.
| Wikipedia: Rabbit |
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 Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus)
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Pentalagus |
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. There are seven different genera in the family classified as rabbits, including the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), Cottontail rabbit (genus Sylvilagus; 13 species), and the Amami rabbit (Pentalagus furnessi, endangered species on Amami Ōshima, Japan). There are many other species of rabbit, and these, along with pikas and hares, make up the order Lagomorpha.
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The rabbit lives in many area around the world. Rabbits live in groups called warrens in underground burrows, or rabbit holes. [1] More the half the rabbit population resides in North America.[1] Meadows, woods, forests, thickets, and grasslands are areas in which rabbits live. [1]
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Rabbits are hindgut digesters. This means that most of their digestion takes place in their large intestine and cecum. In rabbits, the cecum is about 10 times bigger than the stomach, and it, along with the large intestine, makes up roughly 40% of the rabbit's digestive tract.[2] Cecotropes, sometimes called "night feces", come from the cecum and are high in minerals, vitamins and proteins that are necessary to the rabbit's health. Rabbits eat these to meet their nutritional requirements. This process allows rabbits to extract the necessary nutrients from their food.[3]
Rabbits are herbivores who feed by grazing on grass, forbs, and leafy weeds. In consequence, their diet contains large amounts of cellulose, which is hard to digest. Rabbits solve this problem by passing two distinct types of feces: hard droppings and soft black viscous pellets, the latter of which are immediately eaten. Rabbits reingest their own droppings (rather than chewing the cud as do cows and many other herbivores) to digest their food further and extract sufficient nutrients.[4]
Rabbits graze heavily and rapidly for roughly the first half hour of a grazing period (usually in the late afternoon), followed by about half an hour of more selective feeding. In this time, the rabbit will also excrete many hard fecal pellets, being waste pellets that will not be reingested. If the environment is relatively non-threatening, the rabbit will remain outdoors for many hours, grazing at intervals. While out of the burrow, the rabbit will occasionally reingest its soft, partially digested pellets; this is rarely observed, since the pellets are reingested as they are produced. Reingestion is most common within the burrow between 8 o'clock in the morning and 5 o'clock in the evening, being carried out intermittently within that period.
Hard pellets are made up of hay-like fragments of plant cuticle and stalk, being the final waste product after redigestion of soft pellets. These are only released outside the burrow and are not reingested. Soft pellets are usually produced several hours after grazing, after the hard pellets have all been excreted. They are made up of micro-organisms and undigested plant cell walls.
The chewed plant material collects in the large cecum, a secondary chamber between the large and small intestine containing large quantities of symbiotic bacteria that help with the digestion of cellulose and also produce certain B vitamins. The pellets are about 56% bacteria by dry weight, largely accounting for the pellets being 24.4% protein on average. These pellets remain intact for up to six hours in the stomach; the bacteria within continue to digest the plant carbohydrates. The soft feces form here and contain up to five times the vitamins of hard feces. After being excreted, they are eaten whole by the rabbit and redigested in a special part of the stomach. This double-digestion process enables rabbits to use nutrients that they may have missed during the first passage through the gut, and thus ensures that maximum nutrition is derived from the food they eat.[5] This process serves the same purpose within the rabbit as rumination does in cattle and sheep.[6]
Rabbits are incapable of vomiting due to the physiology of their digestive system.[7]
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Rabbits are clearly distinguished from hares in that rabbits are altricial, having young that are born blind and hairless. In contrast, hares are generally born with hair and are able to see (precocial). All rabbits except the cottontail rabbit live underground in burrows or warrens, while hares live in simple nests above the ground (as does the cottontail rabbit), and usually do not live in groups. Hares are generally larger than rabbits, with longer ears, and have black markings on their fur. Hares have not been domesticated, while rabbits are often kept as house pets. In gardens, they are typically kept in hutches — small, wooden, house-like boxes — that protect the rabbits from the environment and predators.
Pet rabbits kept indoors are referred to as house rabbits. House rabbits typically have an indoor pen or cage and a rabbit-safe place to run and exercise, such as an exercise pen, living room or family room. Rabbits can be trained to use a litter box and some can learn to come when called. Domestic rabbits that do not live indoors can also often serve as companions for their owners, typically living in an easily accessible hutch outside the home. Some pet rabbits live in outside hutches during the day for the benefit of fresh air and natural daylight and are brought inside at night.
Whether indoor or outdoor, pet rabbits' pens are often equipped with enrichment activities such as shelves, tunnels, balls, and other toys. Pet rabbits are often provided additional space in which to get exercise, simulating the open space a rabbit would traverse in the wild. Exercise pens or lawn pens are often used to provide a safe place for rabbits to run.
A pet rabbit's diet typically consists of unlimited Timothy hay, a small amount of pellets, and a small portion of fresh vegetables.
Rabbits are social animals. Rabbits as pets can find their companionship with a variety of creatures, including humans, other rabbits, guinea pigs, and sometimes even cats and dogs. Rabbits do not make good pets for small children because they do not know how to stay quiet, calm, and gentle around rabbits. As prey animals, rabbits are alert, timid creatures that startle easily. They have fragile bones, especially in their backs, that require support on the belly and bottom when picked up. Children 10 years old and older usually have the maturity required to care for a rabbit.
The service and therapy animals organization Delta Society has used pet rabbits as therapy for adults and children since the 1970s.
Leporids such as European rabbits and hares are a food meat in Europe, South America, North America, some parts of the Middle East, and China, among other places.
Rabbit is still commonly sold in UK butchers and markets, although not frequently in supermarkets. At farmers markets and the famous Borough Market in London, rabbits will be displayed dead and hanging unbutchered in the traditional style next to braces of pheasant and other small game. Rabbit meat was once commonly sold in Sydney, Australia, the sellers of which giving the name to the rugby league team the South Sydney Rabbitohs, but quickly became unpopular after the disease myxomatosis was introduced in an attempt to wipe out the feral rabbit population (see also Rabbits in Australia).
When used for food, rabbits are both hunted and bred for meat. Snares or guns along with dogs are usually employed when catching wild rabbits for food. In many regions, rabbits are also bred for meat, a practice called cuniculture. Rabbits can then be killed by hitting the back of their heads, a practice from which the term rabbit punch is derived. Rabbit meat is a source of high quality protein.[8] It can be used in most ways chicken meat is used. In fact, well-known chef Mark Bittman says that domesticated rabbit tastes like chicken because both are blank palettes upon which any desired flavors can be layered.[9] Rabbit meat is leaner than beef, pork, and chicken meat. Rabbit products are generally labeled in three ways, the first being Fryer. This is a young rabbit between 4.5 and 5 pounds and up to 9 weeks in age.[10] This type of meat is tender and fine grained. The next product is a Roaster; they are usually over 5 pounds and up to 8 months in age. The flesh is firm and coarse grained and less tender than a fryer. Then there are giblets which include the liver and heart. One of the most common types of rabbit to be bred for meat is New Zealand white rabbit.
There are several health issues associated with the use of rabbits for meat, one of which is Tularemia or Rabbit Fever.[11] Another is so-called rabbit starvation, due most likely to essential fatty acid deficiencies in rabbit meat and synthesis limitations in human beings.
Rabbits are a favorite food item of large pythons, such as Burmese pythons and reticulated pythons, both in the wild, as well as pet pythons. A typical diet for example, for a pet Burmese python, is a rabbit once a week.[citation needed]
Rabbit pelts are sometimes used in for clothing and accessories, such as scarves or hats. Angora rabbits are bread for their long, fine hair, which can be sheared and harvested like sheep wool. Rabbits are very good producers of manure; additionally, their urine, being high in nitrogen, makes lemon trees very productive. Their milk may also be of great medicinal or nutritional benefit due to its high protein content.[citation needed]
Rabbits have been a source of environmental problems when introduced into the wild by humans. As a result of their appetites, and the rate at which they breed, wild rabbit depredation can be problematic for agriculture. Gassing, barriers (fences), shooting, snaring, and ferreting have been used to control rabbit populations, but the most effective measures are diseases such as myxomatosis (myxo or mixi, colloquially) and calicivirus. In Europe, where rabbits are farmed on a large scale, they are protected against myxomatosis and calicivirus with a genetically modified virus. The virus was developed in Spain, and is beneficial to rabbit farmers. If it were to make its way into wild populations in areas such as Australia, it could create a population boom, as those diseases are the most serious threats to rabbit survival. Rabbits in Australia are considered to be such a pest that land owners are legally obliged to control them.[citation needed]
Rabbits and hares were formerly classified in the order Rodentia (rodent) until 1912, when they were moved into a new order Lagomorpha. This order also includes pikas.
Order Lagomorpha
Rabbits are often known affectionately by the pet name bunny or bunny rabbit, especially when referring to young, domesticated rabbits. Originally, the word for an adult rabbit was coney or cony, while rabbit referred only to the young animals. The word rabbit, however, mostly replaced the older word during the 19th century after coney became a vulgarism by analogy to the word cunt (widely considered vulgar) due to their similar pronunciation. When coney was used to refer to rabbits, its pronunciation was changed to [koʊ.ni] (rhymes with "phoney"), instead of the original [kʌ.ni] (rhymes with "money") because of this.[12][13][14][15] More recently, the term kit has been used to refer to a young rabbit. A group of young rabbits is referred to as a kindle. Young hares are called leverets, and this term is sometimes informally applied to any young rabbit. Male rabbits are called bucks and females does. A group of rabbits or hares is often called a fluffle in parts of Northern Canada.
Rabbits are often used as a symbol of fertility or rebirth, and have long been associated with spring and Easter as the Easter Bunny. The species' role as a prey animal also lends itself as a symbol of innocence, another Easter connotation.
Additionally, rabbits are often used as symbols of playful sexuality, which also relates to the human perception of innocence, as well as its reputation as a prolific breeder.
The rabbit often appears in folklore as the trickster archetype, as he uses his cunning to outwit his enemies.
On the Isle of Portland in Dorset, UK, the rabbit is said to be unlucky and speaking its name can cause upset with older residents. This is thought to date back to early times in the quarrying industry, where piles of extracted stone (not fit for sale) were built into tall rough walls (to save space) directly behind the working quarry face; the rabbit's natural tendency to burrow would weaken these "walls" and cause collapse, often resulting in injuries or even death.
The name rabbit is often substituted with words such as “long ears” or “underground mutton”, so as not to have to say the actual word and bring bad luck to oneself. It is said that a public house (on the island) can be cleared of people by calling out the word rabbit and while this was very true in the past, it has gradually become more fable than fact over the past 50 years.
The rabbit as trickster appears in American popular culture; for example the Br'er Rabbit character from African-American folktales and Disney animation; and the Warner Bros. cartoon character Bugs Bunny.
Anthropomorphized rabbits have appeared in a host of works of film, literature, and technology, notably the White Rabbit and the March Hare in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; in the popular novel Watership Down, by Richard Adams (which has also been made into a movie) and in Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit stories.
It was commonly believed that pregnancy tests were based on the idea that a rabbit would die if injected with a pregnant woman's urine. This is not true. However, in the 1920s it was discovered that if the urine contained the hCG, a hormone found in the bodies of pregnant women, the rabbit would display ovarian changes. The rabbit would then be killed to have its ovaries inspected, but the death of the rabbit was not the indicator of the results. Later revisions of the test allowed technicians to inspect the ovaries without killing the animal. A similar test involved injecting Xenopus frogs to make them lay eggs, but animal assays for pregnancy have been made obsolete by faster, cheaper, and simpler modern methods.
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| Translations: Rabbit |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - kanin
v. intr. - jage kaniner
idioms:
Nederlands (Dutch)
konijn, konijnenvacht, haas (V.S.), speler die slecht presteert, op konijnen jagen
Français (French)
n. - (gén) lapin, lapine, lapin (la fourrure)
v. intr. - chasser le lapin, ne pas cesser de parler
idioms:
Deutsch (German)
n. - Kaninchen, Hase
v. - Kaninchen jagen
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (ζωολ.) κουνέλι, (ΗΠΑ) λαγός, (Βρετ.) λαπάς, νωθρός παίκτης
v. - κυνηγώ κουνέλια
idioms:
Italiano (Italian)
coniglio, tagliar la corda, andare a conigli, blaterare
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
n. - coelho (m), pele de coelho
v. - caçar coelhos
idioms:
Русский (Russian)
кролик, охотиться на зайцев
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
n. - conejo, liebre
v. intr. - cazar conejos o liebres
idioms:
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kanin, (sport) gröngöling
v. - fånga kaniner
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
兔, 兔子的毛皮, 野兔, 兔肉, 猎兔, 闲扯, 打兔子
idioms:
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 兔, 兔子的毛皮, 野兔, 兔肉
v. intr. - 獵兔, 閒扯, 打兔子
idioms:
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 집토끼, 겁장이, 방사성 물질 용기
v. intr. - 토끼 사냥하다, 달리다
idioms:
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ウサギ, ウサギの毛皮, 下手な人, 弱虫
v. - ウサギ狩りをする
idioms:
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) الارنب (فعل) يصيد الارنب
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ארנב, פרוות ארנב, שחקן גרוע
v. intr. - צד ארנבות, דיבר, התלונן
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Did you mean: rabbit (mammal), Jessica Rabbit (Animated Character), Rabbit (abbreviation), Wacey Rabbit, Rabbit (Winnie-the-Pooh), Rabbit (zodiac), Rabbit (cipher) More...
 | Hare (dream symbols) |
| cottontail |
| Ermine Rex |
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Food and Nutrition. A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. Copyright © 1995, 2003, 2005 by A. E. Bender and D. A. Bender. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Food Lover's Companion. Food Lover's Companion. Copyright © 2001 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| English Folklore. A Dictionary of English Folklore. Copyright © 2000, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more |
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| Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved. eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial. Read more |
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| Dream Symbol. The Dreams Encyclopedia. 1995 ©Visible Ink Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Rabbit". Read more |
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