They are grey brown in colour with a pale coloured underside. Origin. Rabbit - Rabbit - Diversity and conservation status: There is no single taxonomic group that constitutes the rabbit. European Rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus (Linnaeus 1758) collect. Each year, volunteers survey the same square kilometre, picked at random from a map, over two days during the spring and early summer, and record every creature they encounter. As seen over the last 150 years, the European Rabbit population spreads like wildfire, and it is imperative that that expansion is stopped. The European rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus, is native to north-western Africa, Spain and Portugal and it is now found in the USA, Chile and most of Western Europe as far north as Scandinavia.Domesticated meat rabbits arrived in Australia with the First Fleet and rabbits were released onto many islands in the Bass Strait and the Tasman Sea to provide sustenance for shipwrecked sailors. Rather, the name refers to an accumulation of 10 genera in the family Leporidae whose characteristics are intermediate between hares and pikas, the other members of order Lagomorpha.

The male is called a buck and the female a doe. Sunlight or light affects a rabbit's hormones (mating), or rather stimulates a rabbit's hormones. FERAL EUROPEAN RABBIT (ORYCTOLAGUS CUNICULUS) ... average of five per cent of former population sizes in wetter areas, and 25 per cent in arid areas.

First arriving in Australia with the First Fleet, then deliberately released for hunting in the 1800’s, the rate of spread of the rabbit in Australia was the fastest of …

The research, published in the European Journal of Wildlife Research, has involved annual monitoring of 1,000 square miles (2,600 square kilometres) over the past 18 years. Already covering a large majority of the bottom of Australia, in the future the rabbit could continue to spread up to cover the entire continent. Rabbits generally measure 40 – 45 centimetres in length and have ears that measure 8.5 centimetres long. BRITAIN’S entire pet rabbit population is at risk from a deadly virus which can kill without warning in hours. European rabbits are Australia’s most widespread and destructive environmental and agricultural vertebrate pest. In 2015, RHDV2 was first detected in Australia – it spread coast-to-coast in the rabbit population in 18 months (~3 million square miles, compared to United States’ ~3.8 million square miles) and became the dominant strain replacing RHDV1.

The rabbit pre-breeding season population is estimated to be 40 million. European Rabbits have a body length between 34 and 50 cms (13.5 - 20 inches), a tail length between 4 and 8 cms (1.6 - 3.25 inches) and they weigh between 1 and 2.5 kgs (2.25 - 5.5 lbs). The other important biological control is the rabbit calicivirus disease (rabbit haemorrhagic disease Rabbit Description. Habitat European Rabbits are found throughout Europe and in north west Africa. Soil affects a rabbit in some cases, some rabbit's have burrows for shelter. The domestic or European rabbit is considered within near threatened range by the IUCN.