By : Emily Gadberry

1. RABBITS! By: Emily Gadberry

2. NAMES & LIFE SPAN • Common name: Rabbit • Latin name: Oryctolagus cuniculus - Oryct is Greek for digger, lag is Greek for hare &cunniculus is Latin for burrowing. • Life span: about 1 yr. in the wild, but can live 5-8 yrs. in captivity/as pets

3. Taxonomic classification: • are of the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha; • More specifically: - Kingdom: Animalia- Superphylum: Chordata- Phylum: Vertebrata- Class: Mammalia- Order: Lagomorpha- Family: Leporidae

4. Preferred Habitat & Where They Live • Most cottontails (popular in North America) prefer open or brushy habitats, while other others prefer tropical forest & wetland. • All rabbits except cottontail rabbits are ground dwellers, living underground in burrows or warrens, while hares & cottontails live in simple nests above the ground. • Their natural geographic range encompasses the middle latitudes of the Western Hemisphere (including N. America). In the Eastern Hemisphere rabbits are found in Europe, Central and S. Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Japan.

5. Where Do Rabbits Get Energy From? • Rabbits are heterotrophs, meaning that they have to eat food and digest it in order to produce energy. This makes them different from autotrophs, who make their own energy. • As herbivores, they get their energy by grazing on things such as grass, forbs, and leafy weeds. Like humans, they digest it, releasing energy as sugars, vitamins and minerals into the body. • The rabbit does not make its own food, or eat other organisms because it is an Herbivore.

6. Rabbits Place in Trophic Hierarchy: • The rabbit is a primary consumer or an herbivore in the food web consuming plants. • FOOD WEB!!

7. RELATIOSHIP WITH OTHERS • Interaction With other Organisms: They are preyed upon by a wide variety of mammals and birds that rely upon them as dietary staples. Wolves, foxes, bobcats, weasels, hawks, eagles, and owls all take their toll. These organisms depend upon animals such as the rabbit for survival. • Organisms Rabbits Depend Upon: Native and cultivated vegetation

8. What would happen if the rabbit was removed from the community??? • Because the rabbit is a primary consumer, it’s predators such as Wolves, foxes, bobcats, weasels, hawks, eagles, and owls would be greatly effected. • If rabbits no longer existed, this would diminish their predators food supply, possibly causing some of it’s predators to face starvation in some environments, causing them to eventually die off.

9. What would happen if the organism that rabbits depended on for survival was removed from their community? • This would have a powerful effect on the rabbit population because, as herbivores, vegitation(grasses and weeds) is their only food source. • If all vegitation was removed from their community they would have to then either adapt to their new environment, or die.

10. How Are Environmental Changes Effecting the Rabbit Population? • Rabbits have been a source of environmental problems when introduced into the wild by humans. Because of their appetites and breeding rate, wild rabbit depredation can be problematic for agriculture. Gassing, barriers, shooting, snaring, and ferreting are used to control rabbit populations, but the most effective measures are diseases. In Europe, where rabbits are farmed on a large scale, they are protected against diseases with a genetically modified virus. The virus is beneficial to rabbit farmers. If it were to make its way into wild populations in areas such as Australia, it could create a population boom, as those diseases are the most serious threats to rabbit survival. Rabbits in Australia are considered to be such a pest that land owners are legally obliged to control them.