A small brown rabbit sat on the dirt in a forest. Its ears are small and alert and the tip of its nose, part of its chest and one of its feet are white. Although once considered rodents, lagomorphs like rabbits have been discovered to have diverged separately and earlier than their rodent cousins and have a number of traits rodents lack, like two extra incisors. More recently, the term kit or kitten has rabbit meat benefits used to refer to a young rabbit.

A group of baby rabbits produced from a single mating is referred to as a litter and a group of domestic rabbits living together is sometimes called a herd. Below are some of the genera and species of the rabbit. A small, round, dust-coloured rabbit with upright, close-set ears sat on the ground amidst dead branches. A model of a relatively large rabbit, with a slightly longer face and shorter, rounder ears, and fur patterned black and gold. A small, light-brown rabbit with upright ears sat on some grass.

A taxidermy of a large rabbit with dark brown fur, small, thin ears and an elongated, rodent-like face. A taxidermy of a very small light-brown rabbit mid-gallop. Its features are equally small, appearing similar to a vole. It is not quite large enough to fill the person’s hand completely.

A medium-sized rabbit with light brown fur ticked with grey, its ears large and upright. It stands on all fours on some sandy ground. The term “rabbit” is typically used for all Leporidae species excluding the genus Lepus. Members of that genus are instead known as hares or jackrabbits. Lepus species are typically precocial, born relatively mature and mobile with hair and good vision, while rabbit species are altricial, born hairless and blind, and requiring closer care. Beginning in the Middle Ages, the European rabbit has been widely kept as livestock, starting in ancient Rome.

As livestock, rabbits are bred for their meat and fur. The earliest breeds were important sources of meat, and so became larger than wild rabbits, but domestic rabbits in modern times range in size from dwarf to giant. Because the rabbit’s epiglottis is engaged over the soft palate except when swallowing, the rabbit is an obligate nasal breather. Rabbits have two sets of incisor teeth, one behind the other.

This way they can be distinguished from rodents, with which they are often confused. Though plantigrade at rest, rabbits are on their toes while running, assuming a more digitigrade posture. As a result of the position of the eyes in its skull, the rabbit has a field of vision that encompasses nearly 360 degrees, with just a small blind spot at the bridge of the nose. This image comes from a specimen in the Pacific Lutheran University natural history collection. It displays all of the skeletal articulations of rabbit’s hind limbs. The anatomy of rabbits’ hind limbs are structurally similar to that of other land mammals and contribute to their specialized form of locomotion. These bones are created through endochondral ossification during development.

The hind limbs of a rabbit are an exaggerated feature. They are much longer than the forelimbs, providing more force. Rabbits run on their toes to gain the optimal stride during locomotion. The force put out by the hind limbs is contributed to both the structural anatomy of the fusion tibia and fibula, and muscular features.

A Holland Lop resting with one ear up and one ear down. Some rabbits can adjust their ears to hear distant sounds. Within the order lagomorphs, the ears are utilized to detect and avoid predators. In the family Leporidae, the ears are typically longer than they are wide.

For example, in black tailed jack rabbits, their long ears cover a greater surface area relative to their body size that allow them to detect predators from far away. The auricle, also known as the pinna, is a rabbit’s outer ear. The rabbit’s pinnae represent a fair part of the body surface area. C with rabbits in warmer climates having longer pinnae due to this.