Rabbit natural history & behaviour — prey-species origins, continuously growing teeth, social groups, scent marking, fear response (Welsh Government code)
Source: Welsh Government, “Code of Practice for the Welfare of Rabbits” (© Crown copyright September 2009; 2021-02 gov.wales edition), issued under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Crown copyright, re-used under the Open Government Licence v3.0 with attribution. All bullets below are exact verbatim substrings of the cited source_file and C1-substring verified.
This topic covers the 'What is a rabbit and what does it do?' natural-history chapter of the Welsh Government code — unique to this edition: descent from the wild European rabbit, prey-animal behaviour, teeth and digestion adapted to high-fibre food, social group structure, chin and latrine scent marking, and the freeze-flight-fight fear response.
Claims
All of our rabbits are descended from the wild European rabbit, whose Latin name Oryctolagus cuniculus means ‘Hare-like digger of underground passages’. This name describes the rabbit’s basic behaviour of living underground in a burrow, emerging on the surface in the evening and returning below ground soon after daybreak. Rabbits spend much of their time in dark or low light conditions. They do not like bright lights.Rabbits eat grasses and herbs. They have adapted in the dry landscape of southern Spain, an area of hot summers and little rainfall, with poor quality herbage. Their teeth and digestive system are designed for this poor quality, high fbre food. They slice the grass stems with their specially shaped, sharp, front teeth and grind them with their back teeth. Their teeth grow continuously throughout their lives. Rabbits spend about 70% of the time they are awake eating.Rabbits are social creatures, living in stable groups of between 2 and 10 individuals. Groups of two are usually a male and female, but females normally outnumber males in larger groups. The close bonds that form between individuals within a group and the companionship they enjoy helps the rabbits feel safe and secure and gives them and their offspring the best chance of survival.Rabbits show very subtle changes in behaviour to indicate when they are in pain or are frightened. Often these are misunderstood or not even noticed by owners.Rabbits rub their chin over objects and other rabbits, but this can also include their owners and visitors. Rabbits of both sexes do this, though males more so, and can have quite damp and sticky chins caused by the secretions from the scent gland located there. Chin marking denotes territory and also acts as a means of identifying members of the rabbit’s own group. It acts to both reassure the rabbit that it is amongst friends and on home territory and to deter intruders.They also create latrines, and it is this natural behaviour that makes rabbits so easy to housetrain.Rabbits are animals that are very easily frightened. They can also remember what has frightened them.A common situation where this may occur, is a rabbit that is scared of being picked up. It will attempt to escape by running round its living area; it may then turn around and bite because it cannot get away.