European rabbit

European rabbit
Temporal range: Pleistocene to recent[2]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Lagomorpha
Family: Leporidae
Genus: Oryctolagus
Species:
O. cuniculus[1]
Binomial name
Oryctolagus cuniculus[1]
Range map:
  Native
  Introduced
Synonyms

Lepus cuniculus Linnaeus, 1758

The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) or coney[4] is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal and Andorra), western France, and the northern Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa.[5] It has been widely introduced elsewhere, often with devastating effects on local biodiversity. Its decline in its native range due to myxomatosis, rabbit hemorrhagic disease, overhunting and habitat loss has caused the decline of the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) and Spanish imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti). It is known as an invasive species because it has been introduced to countries on all continents with the exception of Antarctica, and has caused many problems within the environment and ecosystems; in particular, European rabbits in Australia have had a devastating impact, due in part to the lack of natural predators there.

The European rabbit is well known for digging networks of burrows, called warrens, where it spends most of its time when not feeding. Unlike the related hares (Lepus spp.), rabbits are altricial, the young being born blind and furless, in a fur-lined nest in the warren, and they are totally dependent upon their mothers. Much of the modern research into wild rabbit behaviour was carried out in the 1960s by two research centres. One was the naturalist Ronald Lockley, who maintained a number of large enclosures for wild rabbit colonies, with observation facilities at Orielton, in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Apart from publishing a number of scientific papers, he popularised his findings in a book The Private Life of the Rabbit, which is credited by Richard Adams as having played a key role in his gaining "a knowledge of rabbits and their ways" that informed his novel Watership Down. The other group was the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia, where numerous studies of the social behavior of wild rabbits were performed. Since the onset of myxomatosis, and the decline of the significance of the rabbit as an agricultural pest, few large-scale studies have been performed and many aspects of rabbit behaviour are still poorly understood.

  1. ^ Hoffman, R.S.; Smith, A.T. (2005). "Order Lagomorpha". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 205–206. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  2. ^ "Fossilworks: Oryctolagus cuniculus".
  3. ^ Villafuerte, R. & Delibes-Mateos, M. (2020) [errata version of 2019 assessment]. "Oryctolagus cuniculus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2019: e.T41291A170619657. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-3.RLTS.T41291A170619657.en. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  4. ^ "coney, n.1". OED Online. Oxford University Press. 1 March 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  5. ^ "ADW: Oryctolagus cuniculus: INFORMATION". Animal Diversity Web.