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Animal profile

Domestic Rabbit

Oryctolagus cuniculus

MammaliaHutches, homes and laboratories; the wild ancestor lives in grassland and scrub burrowsEndangered

Field profile

The domestic rabbit descends from the European rabbit, an animal whose wild populations in Iberia have collapsed enough for IUCN to list the species as Endangered even as domestic and feral rabbits number in the hundreds of millions. Domestication is recent, likely medieval, and centred on French monastic warrens. Rabbits are hindgut fermenters that re-ingest a specialised type of faeces.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2023-09-20

Domestic Rabbit

Rabbits digest their food twice, by eating it again

A rabbit produces two kinds of dropping. The hard pellets are waste; the soft, clustered caecotrophs are taken directly from the anus and swallowed whole, delivering microbial protein and B vitamins that the first pass could not extract.

Read with evidence →

Domestic Rabbit | Daily Animal Facts