Rabbit is a small mammal within the Leporidae family of the Lagomorpha order (together with rabbits and pika). Oryctolagus cuniculus including European rabbit species and its derivatives, 305 breeds of domestic rabbits in the world. Sylvilagus includes thirteen species of wild rabbits, among them seven types of cottontail. European rabbits, which have been introduced on every continent except Antarctica, are known throughout the world as wild prey animals and as livestock and pets. With its widespread effects on ecology and culture, rabbits (or rabbits ), in many areas of the world, part of everyday life - as food, clothing, and friends, and as a source of artistic inspiration.
Video Rabbit
Terminology
The male rabbit is called bucks ; women are called not . The older term for adult rabbits is coney , while rabbits have been mentioned only in young animals. Another term for young rabbits is rabbit , although the term is often applied informally (especially by children) to rabbits generally, especially domestic ones. Recently, the term kit or kitten has been used to refer to young rabbits. A young rabbit is called leveret ; The term is sometimes informally applied to young rabbits as well.
A group of rabbits is known as colony or nest (or, sometimes, nest , although this is more often referring to rabbit habitation). A group of baby rabbits resulting from single marriage is referred to as Maps Rabbit
Taxonomy
Previous rabbits and rabbits were classified in Rodentia order (rodents) until 1912, when they were transferred to the new order, Lagomorpha (which also included pikas). Below are some of the genera and species of rabbits.
Message Lagomorpha
Family Leporidae
Differences from rabbits
Hares are precocial, born relatively mature and mobile with good hair and vision, while rabbits are altricial, born without hair and blindness, and require closer care. Hares (and cottontail rabbits) live a relatively secluded life in a simple nest above the ground, while most rabbits live in social groups underground in burrows or underground. Hares are generally larger than rabbits, with longer ears, and with larger and longer hind legs. Hares has not been domesticated, while the offspring of European rabbits are generally raised as cattle and kept as pets.
Domesticated rabbit
Rabbits have long been domesticated. Beginning in the Middle Ages, European rabbits have been widely preserved as livestock, starting from ancient Rome. Selective nurseries have produced various types of rabbit breeds, many of which (since the early 19th century) are also kept as pets. Some rabbit strains have been cultured specifically as research subjects.
As cattle, rabbits are bred for their flesh and fur. The earliest breeds are an important source of meat, and become larger than wild rabbits, but domestic rabbits in modern times have sizes ranging from dwarfs to giants. Rabbit fur, which is valuable for its softness, can be found in various colors and coat patterns, as well as its length. Angora rabbits breed, for example, developed for long, fluffy, often spun into yarn. Other domestic rabbit breeds have been developed primarily for commercial feather trade, including Rex, which has a short fancy coat.
Biology
Evolution
Because the rabbit epiglottis moves above the soft palate except when swallowing, the rabbit is the obligate nose breath. The rabbit has two sets of incisors, one behind the other. In this way they can be distinguished from rodents, with which they are often confused. Carl Linnaeus originally classified rabbits and mice under the Glires class; then, they are separated as scientific consensus is that their many similarities are the result of convergent evolution. However, recent DNA analyzes and the discovery of common ancestors have supported the view that they share the same lineage, and hence rabbits and rodents are now often referred to together as members of the superorder Glires.
Morphology
Because speed and agility are the main defenses of rabbits against predators (including fast foxes), rabbits have large spine and well-developed muscles. Although plantigrade at rest, rabbits are on their toes while running, assuming more digitigrade shapes. Rabbits use strong nails to dig and (along with their teeth) for defense. Each forefoot has four toes plus one dewclaw. Each hind leg has four toes (but no dewclaw).
Most wild rabbits (especially compared to rabbits) have relatively full egg-shaped bodies. The soft layer of wild rabbits is agouti in staining (or, rarely, melanistic), which helps in camouflage. The rabbit's tail (with the exception of cottontail species) is dark in color at the top and white below. Cotton has a white color on the top of its tail.
As a result of eye positions on his skull, the rabbit has a field of vision that covers almost 360 degrees, with only a small blind spot on the bridge of the nose.
Hind limb elements
The anatomy of the rear leg limbs is structurally similar to other terrestrial mammals and contributes to their special propulsion form. The bones of the rear legs consist of long bones (thigh bone, tibia, fibula, and phalang) and short bone (tarsal). These bones are created through endocondral ossification during development. Like most land mammals, the femoral head articulated with the acetabulum of ox coxae. The thighs articulate with the tibia, but not the fibula, which is attached to the tibia. Tibia and fibula articulate with the tarsal pes, usually called the foot. The rear legs of the rabbit are longer than the front limbs. This allows them to produce the shape of their leap propulsion. Longer rear members are more capable of producing faster speeds. Hares, who has longer legs than a cottontail rabbit, can move much faster. Rabbits stay only on the toes when moving is called Digitigrade locomotion. The rear legs have four long toes that allow for this and are webbed to prevent them from spreading while jumping. Rabbits do not have paw pads on their feet like most other animals that use digitigrade movements. Instead, they have roughly compressed hair that offers protection.
Otculature
The rabbit has a muscular back leg that allows maximum strength, maneuverability, and acceleration divided into three main parts; legs, thighs, and legs. The rear legs of the rabbit are an exaggerated feature, which is much longer than the front arm that gives more power. Rabbits walk on their toes to get the optimal step during the move. The force emitted by the rear members contributes to the structural anatomy of tibia and fibula fusion, and muscle features. Bone formation and removal, from a cellular point of view, is directly correlated with the back leg muscles. The action pressure of the muscle creates forces which are then distributed through the skeletal structure. Rabbits that produce less strength, putting less pressure on the bones are more susceptible to osteoporosis due to bone refinement. In rabbits, the more fibers in the muscle, the more resistant to fatigue. For example, rabbits have greater resistance to fatigue than cottontails. The hind limb muscles of the rabbit can be classified into four main categories: hamstrings, quads, dorsiflexor, or plantar flexor. Quadriceps muscle is responsible for the production of strength when jumping. Praising these muscles is the hamstrings that help in short bursts of action. These muscles play with each other in the same way as the plantar flexor and doriflexor, contributing to the generation and action associated with strength.
Ear
In the order of lagomorphs, the ear is used to detect and avoid predators. In the leporidae family, the ear is usually longer than the width. For example, in black-tailed jacketed rabbits, their long ears cover a larger surface area relative to their body size that allows them to detect predators from afar. In contrast to cotton-tailed rabbits, their ears are smaller and shorter, requiring predators to get closer to detecting them before escaping. Evolution has favored rabbits to have shorter ears so that larger surface area does not cause them to lose heat in more temperate regions. The reverse can be seen in rabbits that live in warmer climates, especially since they have longer ears that have larger surface areas that aid the spread of heat as well as the theory that sound does not work well in drier air, as opposed to cold air. Therefore, longer ears are meant to assist the organism in detecting prey faster than later in warmer temperatures. Rabbits are marked with shorter ears while rabbits are characterized by their longer ears. Rabbit ears are an important structure to help thermoregulate and detect predators because of how the outer, middle, and inner ear muscles coordinate with each other. The muscles of the ear also help maintain balance and movement when escaping from predators.
Outside ears
The Auricle (anatomy), also known as pinna is the outer ear of a rabbit. The rabbit's body surface is mostly taken by pinnae. It theorizes that the aid of the ear in the spread of heat at temperatures above 30 Â ° C with rabbits in warmer climates has longer pinnae because of this. Another theory is that the ear functions as a shock absorber that can help and stabilize the vision of a rabbit when escaping a predator, but this is usually seen only in rabbits. The rest of the outer ear has a bending channel that leads to the eardrum or tympanic membrane.
Middle ear
The middle ear is filled with three bones called ossicles and separated by an external ear drum behind the rabbit skull. Three ossicles are called hammer, anvil, and stirrup and act to reduce the sound before touching the inner ear. In general, ossicles act as a barrier to the inner ear for sound energy.
Inner ear
The inner ear fluid called endolymph receives sound energy. After receiving energy, then inside the inner ear there are two parts: the cochlea utilizing sound waves from the ossicles and the vestibular apparatus that regulates the rabbit's position in motion. In cochlea there is a basilar membrane that contains a sensory hair structure that is used to send nerve signals to the brain so as to recognize different sound frequencies. In the vestibular apparatus the rabbit has three semicircular canals to help detect angular motion.
Thermoregulation
Thermoregulation is the process by which the organism maintains an optimal body temperature even if there are severe external conditions. This process is performed by a pinnae that takes up most of the rabbit's body surface and contains a vascular and arteriovenous shunt tissue. In rabbits, the optimal body temperature is about 21 years. If their body temperature exceeds or does not meet this optimum temperature, the rabbit must return to homeostasis. Homeostasis of body temperature is maintained with the use of their large ears and has a high vascularization that is able to alter the amount of blood flow that passes through the ear.
The narrowing and widening of the blood vessels in the ear is used to control the core temperature of the rabbit's body. If the core temperature exceeds its optimum temperature, blood flow is limited to limit the amount of blood passing through the vessels. With this narrowing, there is only a small amount of blood passing through the ear where ambient heat will be able to heat blood flowing through the ear and hence, raising the body temperature. Refinement is also used when the ambient temperature is much lower than the core body temperature of the rabbit. When the ears narrow again restrict blood flow through the ears to preserve the optimal body temperature of the rabbit. If the temperature is about 15 degrees above or below the optimal body temperature, the blood vessels will widen. With dilated blood vessels, blood can pass through large surface areas that cause it to heat or cold.
During the summer, the rabbit has the ability to stretch its pinnae that allows larger surface areas and increases heat dissipation. In winter, rabbits do the opposite and fold their ears to lower their surface area to the surrounding air which will lower their body temperature.
The jackrabbit has the largest ears in the Oryctolagus cuniculus group . Their ears contribute up to 17% of the total surface area of ​​their bodies. Their great Pinna evolved to maintain homeostasis while at extreme temperatures in the desert.
Digestion
Rabbits are herbivores that feed on grazing in grass, forbs, and weeds. Therefore, their diet contains cellulose in large quantities, which are difficult to digest. Rabbits solve this problem through the form of hindgut fermentation. They pass through two different types of impurities: hard dirt and black thick pellets, the latter known as caecotrophs and immediately eaten (a behavior known as coprophagy). Rabbits circumcise their own excrement (rather than chewing cobs like cows and many other herbivores) to digest their food further and extract enough nutrients.
Rabbits scratched heavily and rapidly for about the first half hour of the grazing period (usually in the afternoon), followed by about half the more selective feeding hours. Currently, the rabbit will also issue a lot of pellets of dirt, into waste pellets that will not be blown. If the environment is relatively non-threatening, the rabbit will remain out for hours, grazing within a certain time interval. Upon exiting the burrow, the rabbit will occasionally chew the soft pellet, partially digested; this is rarely observed, because the pellets react when produced.
The hard pellet consists of pieces such as straw from the cuticle and stalk of the plant, which becomes the final waste product after soft pellet redigestion. It was just released outside the burrow and not reedested. Soft pellets are usually produced a few hours after grazing, after all hard pellets have been excreted. They are composed of micro-organisms and plant cell walls that are not digested.
Rabbit is a hindgut bully. This means that most of their digestion occurs in the colon and cecum. In rabbits, the cecum is about 10 times larger than the stomach and along with the colon makes up about 40% of the rabbit's digestive tract. The unique muscle of the cecum allows the rabbit's intestinal tract to separate fibrous material from more easily digested materials; fibrous material is passed as a feces, while more nutritious substances are encased in the mucous layer as cecotrope. Cecotropes, sometimes called "night shit", contain many of the minerals, vitamins and proteins necessary for the health of rabbits. Rabbits eat it to meet their nutritional needs; the mucosal layer allows the nutrients to pass through the stomach acid for digestion in the gut. This process allows rabbits to extract the necessary nutrients from their diet.
Chewable plant material is collected in the large cauldron, a secondary space between the colon and small that contains large amounts of symbiotic bacteria that aid in digestion of cellulose and also produce certain B vitamins. Pellets are about 56% of bacteria with a dry weight, most of which are pellets that average 24.4% protein. Soft impurities are formed here and contain up to five times the vitamin of hard feces. Once removed, they are eaten whole by the rabbit and re-digested in the special part of the stomach. Pellets remain intact for up to six hours in the stomach; Deep bacteria continue to digest plant carbohydrates. This double digestive process allows rabbits to use the nutrients they might miss during their first journey through the intestines, as well as nutrients formed by microbial activity and thus ensure that the maximum nutrients come from the foods they eat. This process serves the same purpose in rabbits as is done on cattle and sheep.
Rabbits can not vomit. Because the rabbit can not vomit, if the buildup occurs in the intestine (because often diet with insufficient fiber), intestinal blockage may occur.
Sleep
Rabbits may appear to be crepuscular, but their natural tendency leads to nocturnal activity. In 2011, the average bedtime of rabbits in captivity was calculated at 8.4 hours per day. Like other prey animals, rabbits often sleep with their eyes open, so sudden movement will wake the rabbit to respond to potential dangers.
Disease
In addition to the risk of disease from common pathogens such as Bordetella bronchiseptica and Escherichia coli, rabbits can contract virulent virus, the RHB-specific virus species ("rabbit hemorrhagic herease", a form of calicivirus) or myxomatosis. Among the parasites that infect the rabbit are tapeworms (such as Taenia serialis) , external parasites (including ticks and mites), coccidia species, and Toxoplasma gondii . Rabbits Domestication with a diet lacking in high fiber sources, such as straw and grass, is susceptible to potentially lethal gastrointestinal stasis. Rabbits and rabbits are almost never found infected with rabies and have not been known to transmit rabies to humans.
Ecology
Rabbits are prey animals and are therefore always aware of their surroundings. For example, in Mediterranean Europe, rabbits are the main prey of red foxes, badgers, and Iberinian lynxes. If faced with a potential threat, the rabbit can freeze and observe then warn others in the warren with a hard blow on the ground. Rabbits have a very wide field of vision, and much of it is devoted to scanning overhead. They survive by digging digs, jumping in zigzag motion, and, if caught, give a powerful kick with their hind legs. Their strong teeth allow them to eat and bite to avoid struggling. A longest-lived rabbit ever recorded, a European rabbit living in Tasmania, died at the age of 18. Wild rabbit age is shorter; the average longevity of the eastern cottontail, for example, is less than a year.
Habitat and range
Rabbit habitats include pastures, forests, forests, pastures, deserts and wetlands. Rabbits live in groups, and the most famous species, European rabbits, live in underground burrows, or rabbit holes. A group of burrows is called warren.
More than half of the world's rabbit population is in North America. They are also natives from southwestern Europe, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, some islands of Japan, and in parts of Africa and South America. They are not naturally found in most Eurasians, where a number of rabbit species are present. The rabbits first entered South America recently, as part of the Great American Exchange. Most continents have only one species of rabbit, tapeti, while most of the cones are south of South America without rabbits.
European rabbits have been introduced to many places around the world.
Environmental issues
Rabbits have been the source of environmental problems when introduced to the wild by humans. As a result of their tastes, and the rate at which they proliferate, the depredation of wild rabbits can be a problem for agriculture. Gassing, barrier (fencing), shooting, trapping, and scraping have been used to control the rabbit population, but the most effective actions are diseases such as myxomatosis (myxo or mixi, day) and calicivirus. In Europe, where rabbits are cultivated on a large scale, they are protected against myxomatosis and caliciviruses with genetically modified viruses. The virus was developed in Spain, and beneficial to rabbit farmers. If it makes its way into wild populations in areas like Australia, it could create a population explosion, because it is the most serious threat to the survival of rabbits. Rabbits in Australia and New Zealand are regarded as pests whose landowners are legally obliged to control them.
As food and clothing
In some areas, wild rabbits and rabbits are hunted for their meat, a source of high-quality protein. In the wild, such hunting is done with the help of trained eagles, weasels, or dogs, as well as with other snares or traps, and rifles. A captured rabbit can be sent with a sharp blow in the back of his head, a practice that originates from the term blow rabbit .
Wild leporida comprises a small portion of global rabbit meat consumption. Domestic descendants of European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) grown and raised as farms (a practice called cuniculture) account for about 200 million tons of rabbit meat produced each year. In 1994, countries with the highest rabbit meat consumption were Malta with 8.89 kilograms (19.6 pounds), Italy with 5.71 kilograms (12.6 pounds), and Cyprus with 4.37 kilograms (9.6 pounds), down to 0.03 kilograms. (0.066 pounds) in Japan. The figure for the United States is 0.14 kilograms (0.31 pounds) per capita. The largest producers of rabbit meat in 1994 were China, Russia, Italy, France, and Spain. Rabbit meat was once a common commodity in Sydney, Australia, but decreased after the myxomatosis virus was intentionally introduced to control the exploding population of wild rabbits in the area.
In the UK, fresh rabbits are sold at butchers and markets, and some supermarkets sell frozen rabbit meat. In the farm market there, including London's famous Borough Market, rabbit carcasses are sometimes displayed hanging, unattached (in traditional style), in addition to pheasant buckwheat or other small game. Rabbit meat is a feature of Moroccan cuisine, where cooked in tajine with "raisins and grilled almonds added a few minutes before serving". In China, rabbit meat is very popular in Sichuan cuisine, with boiled rabbits, spicy diced rabbit, BBQ-style rabbit, and even spicy rabbit head, which has been compared to spicy duck neck. Rabbit meat is relatively unpopular elsewhere in Asia-Pacific.
A very rare infection associated with rabbit-as-food is tularemia (also known as rabbit fever), that can be contracted from an infected rabbit. Hunters have a high risk for tularemia because of the potential for inhaling bacteria during the skinning process. A more rare condition is protein poisoning, which was first noted as a consequence of eating rabbit meat to be ostracized (hence the daily term, "rabbit hunger"). Protein poisoning, which is linked to the extreme conditions of the total absence of fat and dietary protein, was recorded by Vilhjalmur Stefansson in the late 19th century and in the journal Charles Darwin.
In addition to the meat, rabbits are used for wool, feathers, and fur, as well as their nitrogen-rich impurities and high-protein milk. The production industry has developed breeds of pet rabbits (such as the famous Angora rabbit) to meet these needs efficiently. In the art, literature, and culture
Rabbits are often used as a symbol of fertility or rebirth, and have long been associated with spring and Easter as the Easter Bunny. The role of the species as a predatory animal with little defensive generates vulnerability and innocence, and in folklore and modern children's stories, rabbits often appear as sympathetic characters, can connect easily with all types of youth (eg, Velveteen Rabbit, or Bambi beat).
With its reputation as a productive breeder, rabbits juxtapose sexuality with innocence, as in Playboy Bunny. Rabbits (as fast-vultures) are also known for their speed, agility, and durability, symbolized (for example) by the marketing icon "Bunny Energizer" (known in Europe and Australia as "Duracell Bunny").
Folklore and mythology
Rabbits often appear in folklore as artificial cheats, because he uses his ingenuity to outwit his enemies.
- In Aztec mythology, a pantheon of four hundred rabid gods known as Centzon Totochtin, led by Ometotchtli or Two Rabbits, represents fertility, feasting, and intoxication.
- In Central Africa, ordinary rabbits ( Kalulu ), "are inexplicably described" as fraudulent figures.
- In Chinese folklore, rabbits accompany Chang'e on the Moon. In the Lunar New Year, the zodiac rabbit is one of twelve celestial animals in the Chinese zodiac. Note that the Vietnamese zodiac includes a zodiac cat in the rabbit's place, probably because the rabbits do not inhabit Vietnam. The most common explanation, however, is that the ancient Vietnamese word for "rabbit" (mao) sounds like the Chinese word for "cat" (?,
- In Japanese tradition, rabbits live on the Moon where they make mochi, a popular snack of glutinous sticky rice. This comes from interpreting the pattern of dark spots on the moon when the rabbit stands on tiptoe to the left pounding on the usu, a Japanese mortar.
- In Jewish folklore, rabbits (shfanim ?????) are associated with cowardice, a still applicable use in the Hebrew language spoken by contemporary Israelis (similar to the daily use of "chicken" to show cowardice ).
- In Korean mythology, as in Japanese, rabbits live on the moon making rice cakes ("Tteok" in Korean).
- In the traditional beliefs of Anishinaabe, held by the Ojibwe tribe and some other native tribes of America, Nanabozho, or the Great Rabbit, is an important deity associated with the creation of the world.
- The story of Vietnamese mythology describes an innocent and ageless rabbit. The mythical gods are shown to hunt and kill rabbits to show off their strength.
- Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism have associations with ancient circular motifs called three rabbits (or "three rabbits"). Its meaning ranges from "peace and tranquility", to purity or the Holy Trinity, to the Kabbalistic level of the Jewish soul or diaspora. Tripartite symbols also appear in symbols and even tattoos.
Another fictional rabbit
Rabbits as con artists are part of popular American culture, such as Br'er Rabbit (from African-American folklore and, later, Disney animations) and Bugs Bunny (cartoon characters from Warner Bros.), for example.
An anthropomorphic rabbit has appeared in films and literature, in the Alice Adventure of the Wonderland (White Rabbit and Rabbit March characters), in Watership Down (including film and television adaptations) on Rabbit Hill (by Robert Lawson), and in the story of Peter Rabbit (by Beatrix Potter). In the 1920s, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit , was a popular cartoon character.
Superstition and urban legend
Rabbit legs can be brought as a talisman, believed to bring protection and luck. This belief is found in many parts of the world, with the earliest use recorded in Europe c. 600 BC.
On the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England, the rabbit is said to be unlucky and even speaking the name of the creature can cause irritation among the islanders who are older. It is thought to go back to the early days in the local quarrying industry where (to save space) extracting unsuitable stones for sale is placed on the side of a wall that is high and unstable. The local rabbits' tendency to dig there will weaken the walls and their collapse lead to injury or even death. Thus, asking the name of the culprit to be a disadvantaged act should be avoided. In the local culture to this day, the rabbit (when she should be called) may be called a "long ear" or "underground goat", so as not to risk bringing destruction on yourself. While it is true 50 years ago that a pub on the island could be emptied by calling the word "rabbit", it has become more fable than the fact in modern times.
In other parts of the UK and in North America, calling the name of a rabbit can actually bring good luck. "Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit" is a variant of apotropaic or talismanic superstition that involves pronouncing or repeating the word "rabbit" (or "rabbit" or "white rabbit" or some of its combinations) aloud upon awakening on the first day of every month. , because it will ensure luck during that month.
The "rabbit test" is a term, first used in 1949, for the Friedman test, an early diagnostic tool for the detection of a human pregnancy. It is a common misconception (or perhaps an urban legend) that guinea pigs will die if the woman is pregnant. This causes the phrase "the rabbit to die" to be a euphemism for a positive pregnancy test.
See also
References
Further reading
- Windling, Terri. The Symbolism of Rabbits and Hares
External links
- The American Rabbit Breeders Association organization promotes all phases of rabbit maintenance
- House Rabbit Society, an activist organization that promotes keeping rabbits indoors.
- RabbitShows.com is an information site about hobby featuring rabbits.
- Language (mostly) mute rabbit
- The World Rabbit Science Association is a healthy international rabbits-based organization
- Year of the Rabbit - slideshow by Life magazine
- House Rabbit Society- FAQ: Aggression
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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