21 Facts About European rabbit

European rabbit or coney is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula, western France, and the northern Atlas mountains in Northwest Africa.

European rabbit is well known for digging networks of burrows, called warrens, where it spends most of its time when not feeding.

Much of the modern research into wild European rabbit behaviour was carried out in the 1960s by two research centres.

Originally assigned to the genus Lepus, the European rabbit was consigned to its own genus in 1874 on account of its altricial young, its burrowing habits, and numerous skeletal characters.

European rabbit is smaller than the European hare and mountain hare, and lacks black ear-tips, as well as having proportionately shorter legs.

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Fur of the European rabbit is generally greyish-brown, but this is subject to much variation.

European rabbit is a gregarious animal, which lives in stable social groups centred around females sharing access to one or more burrow systems.

European rabbit kittens are born blind, deaf, and nearly naked.

European rabbit's burrows occur mostly on slopes and banks, where drainage is more efficient.

European rabbit is a relatively quiet animal, though it has at least two vocalisations.

European rabbit eats a wide variety of herbage, especially grasses, favouring the young, succulent leaves and shoots of the most nutritious species, particularly fescues.

The European rabbit is a less fussy eater than the brown hare: when eating root vegetables, the rabbit eats them whole, while the hare tends to leave the peel.

European rabbit is the only species fatally attacked by myxomatosis.

Humans' relationship with the European rabbit was first recorded by the Phoenicians prior to 1000 BC, when they termed the Iberian Peninsula i-Shaphan-im .

European rabbit has been introduced as an exotic species into several environments, often with harmful results to vegetation and local wildlife, making it an invasive species.

European rabbit is widespread in both Great Britain, Ireland and most islands, except for Isles of Scilly, Rum, Tiree, and some small Scottish islands, such as Gunna, Sanday, and most of the Treshnish Isles.

The European rabbit was nonetheless scarce or absent throughout most of England a short time afterwards, as warrens are not mentioned in the Domesday Book or any other 11th century documents.

Twenty-four specimens of the European rabbit were introduced to Australia in 1859 by estate owner Thomas Austin in Victoria.

Exact date on which the European rabbit was introduced into Chile is unknown, though the first references to it occur during the mid-18th century.

In modern times, the European rabbit problem has not been resolved definitively, though a deliberate outbreak of myxomatosis in Tierra del Fuego successfully reduced local rabbit populations.

European rabbit is the only rabbit to be widely domesticated, for food or as a pet.