The funny woolen face of the animal with large ears attracts the attention of both children and adults. Rabbits are very popular as pets and from the side of cooking. Interesting facts about rabbits can tell that these gentle, funny and good-natured creatures will become great friends.
Origin
It is a mistake to assume that the rabbit is descended from a hare. Yes, they are very similar, but relatives are very distant. If you mate a rabbit and a hare, the offspring will not work due to incompatible biological differences. But wild and domestic rabbits can interbreed.
Today, there are more than a dozen different species of these animals. But only a European wild rabbit was domesticated. So all breeds of pets take their roots from the animal living in what is now called Spain.
If you believe the researchers of this country who tell interesting facts about rabbits, then you can find out the following. When the Carthaginians landed on this territory, the soldiers began to shout: "Span, span!" Such an exclamation was heard because rabbits jumped out from under each bush. "Span" in Carthaginian means "rabbit." Therefore, they named the landing site of Spain, which means "country of rabbits."
Life span
The better the pet’s conditions, the longer it lives. Unfortunately, in the wild, the rabbit lives a maximum of three years. All the fault:
- illnesses;
- predators;
- bad weather.
Pets grown for gastronomic purposes live up to two years. Then they are killed to get meat, and the skin is allowed to make fur products or souvenirs.
Only decorative rabbits can boast of longevity. They live 7-10 years, there are individuals aged 13-14 years. The longest-living rabbit died at the age of 19.
The longevity of lonely rabbits is less than in pairs. In freedom, the animals coexist with the whole family.
Sounds
Rabbits, one might say, are almost dumb creatures. They occasionally make some sounds. Sometimes you can hear a soft click of teeth or something like a rumbling. This means that the animal is as good as a cat when it purrs. Loud exclamations indicate pain.
An interesting fact about domestic rabbits is that they sometimes mutter. Such sounds are most often made by a rabbit when feeding her offspring.
Running and jumping
Eared pets participate in rabbit race competitions. After all, they can reach speeds of up to 55 km / h. The animal is motivated by yummy, and if a predator chases after it, the rabbit will easily leave a greyhound dog behind.
Another interesting fact about rabbits is the speed of movement and jumping. Buying rabbits home, you should get a fence for them. It is desirable that it be higher. These ears are very flexible and jumping. The height to which the rabbit jumps reaches one meter, and the length is three.
A frightened rabbit can instantly break loose and rush wherever his eyes look, knocking down everything that is not standing, lying or walking in its path.
Sleep
It’s funny to watch the rabbits when they sleep. The muzzle and ears of the animals are in constant motion, as if they have a dream about how they eat something very tasty. It turns out that during sleep, the animal’s brain analyzes the aromas and sounds surrounding it.
An interesting fact about rabbits is that to obtain more objective information about the situation, the crawl changes the position of the ears and nose. This helps him even in a dream to understand that a predator is approaching.
Highscores
These cute animals gave the whole world a lot of funny, amazing and interesting results.
Among them there are records:
- The longest ears of a rabbit named Nippers Geronimo are 79 cm.
- The most weighty rabbit is 25 kg.
- The smallest weighing 350 grams is the Litle Idaho rabbit. Its length does not exceed 35 cm.
- One female produced 24 rabbits.
All these interesting facts about decorative rabbits are recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.
Pet breeding
A rabbit with a depression can have a false pregnancy, she eats a lot and behaves cocky.
A true pregnancy lasts 30 days. An interesting fact about rabbits is that the female is able to conceive at different times from two different males and simultaneously carry both offspring.
The structure of the reproductive organs in the rabbit is different in that the uterus has two chambers that can store the fruits inside themselves independently of each other. The mother feeds her cubs no more than 5 minutes a day.
Emotions
Rabbits make sounds differently, it happens to hear:
- grunting;
- whining
- growl;
- loud gnashing of teeth.
This indicates irritation, discontent, or malaise. If you frighten a pregnant rabbit, she may lose her offspring. As for the male, he will simply die with fear, and this is not an exaggeration. Signs of fear:
- rolling eyes;
- growl;
- loss of appetite;
- stamping feet.
So it’s better to be a little nicer with them. Under natural conditions, all predators are higher than rabbit-like, so raising the eared eared up can greatly scare him.
How to pick up
This is especially useful for children. An interesting fact about rabbits will be that any careless gesture is perceived almost as an attack. At first it’s better not to pick up a pet.
Let the coward get comfortable and get used to it. What to do:
- Carefully pick up. The bones of the animal are very fragile, they can be broken.
- You can’t lift it by the ears - it hurts.
- Grabbing the withers is also not worth it. A rabbit can start to break out and hurt its neck.
It is best to hold the furry creature on one hand and hold the other.
There are many different breeds of rabbits, but Angora is especially popular.
Angora rabbit
This group of breeds is distributed throughout Europe. The homeland is the city of Angora in Turkey. There is an opinion that the sailors took these fluffy creatures with them, and therefore Angora rabbits spread around the world.
Interesting facts about these cuties:
- The length of the coat can reach 25 centimeters. From this, the animal seems much larger, although in fact this group of breeds is considered dwarf. And their weight ranges from two to seven kilograms.
- Russian scientists have developed a down breed of rabbits. They are able to survive in harsh frosty conditions.
- There are English, satin, French, giant, Germanic and downy rabbits. All of them are somewhat different. Germanic ones bring a large amount of fluff (about 1.5 kg per animal per year). The English breed is considered the smallest, its weight does not exceed three kilograms.
- Angora rabbits are most often found white, but there is another color (black, gray and with a bluish tint).
China holds the palm for the production of Angora rabbit fur. The state produces almost eight thousand tons of fur per year. For such a volume, almost 11 million furry animals will be needed. But on one continent in the Southern Hemisphere, rabbits are a real disaster.
Rabbits in Australia
Due to their fertility and the absence of enemies in the natural environment, rabbits have spread throughout the Australian continent. These animals brazenly increased their habitat to 100 km per year. In order to somehow stop the capture of land by the eared, the Australians created the Great Barrier - a wire fence, the length of which was 3, 500 kilometers.
But this did not work, the animals did a dig under the fence and spread further, safely acting on the nerves of the farmers, destroying the crop and vegetation. In the middle of the 20th century, the number of rabbits amounted to 750 million.
Once did not fight rabbits in Australia. Interesting facts indicate that even predators who were specially brought to the continent could not cope with this task:
- foxes;
- martens;
- affection;
- dogs;
- ferrets.
These animals preferred to hunt for marsupials, and rabbits both spread and continue to spread, threatening to nullify sheep breeding in the country.
Eared animals were poisoned with chemicals, but this did not produce any particular results. An effective tool was the infection of specially bred mosquitoes with an infectious disease, which led to the death of almost 90% of rabbits. But the surviving animals gained immunity and continued to breed.
Today, the struggle with the eared disaster continues. Each year, these cuties eat so much grass that it would be enough to feed 25 million sheep.
