Rabbit Hunting Info

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, which also includes res and pikas (Lagomorph means ‘hare-shaped’), and are 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 rabbits (genus Sylvilagus; 13 species), and the Amami Rabbit (Pentalagus furnessi, an endangered species on Amami Oshima, Japan). There are many other species of rabbit, and these, along with cottontails, pikas and hares make up the Order Lagomorpha.

A social creature, the rabbit stays in colonies in burrows. It is able to live just about anywhere, from sea-level to mountainous regions, excavating burrows on farmlands, dunes of sand, salt bogs, upland, mounds and cliffs. Vacant cliff warrens are frequently taken over by nesting puffins or shearwaters. The burrow is dug in a random manner with intersecting tunnels, bolt runs as well as emergency exits. The warrens destroy field margins and enclosures disturbing the nearby soil, therefore supporting the growth of wild plants as nettles and ragwort. At breeding period, the doe digs an individual warren called a stop that she decorates with hay, straws and her own fur. The stop may be a 2 - 3 foot addition of the main burrow or a totally separate dig which may sooner or later be a starting point of a new group.

Breeding can occur at irregular intervals all through the year but mostly between January to June and going into August providing the weather conditions are good. A buck mates with a number of does, but plays no part in rearing the young and can even kill them. The common notion of the rabbit’s breeding aptitude is not overstated, because it’s possible for a doe to have a litter of 3-6 young each month. Nevertheless, this hardly ever happens, as more than half of the little creatures conceived die prior to being born; they are reabsorbed into their mother’s body. The typical production rate is of 10 live young for every year.

The young bunnies are born beneath the ground level, deaf, blind and with no fur. The mother visits the stop daily to suckle the little ones and when she goes away she blocks the opening to preserve heat and as a defense against foes. Within a month’s time, the young are able to look after themselves. The bunnies reach mature size after nine months although they can reproduce after 3 or 4 months. A rabbit seldom has a life-span of more than a year with the rate of mortality among the young being high. Amongst their foes, apart from man, are dogs, cats, foxes, stoats, badgers, owls, weasels and buzzards. At dusk and dawn rabbits come out from the burrow to feed. They set up clear runways and shared toilets/latrines that are frequently on a mole-hill. Feeding is done by refection, an analogous method to the way cows chew the cud.

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.