Rabbit
Featured in: Year 1: Animals, including humans
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Rabbit
Mammal
A common mammal with long ears, powerful hind legs, and teeth that never stop growing.
How to identify:
Look for long ears, a twitching nose, a fluffy white tail (scut), and its hopping movement.
💡 Fun Facts
- A rabbit's teeth grow continuously throughout its life, so it must chew on grass and tough plants to wear them down.
- They eat their own droppings to digest their food a second time and get all the nutrients out.
- Their long ears can turn 180 degrees, helping them to pinpoint the source of a sound.
Name Story
Oryctolagus cuniculus
means “the digging hare of the tunnels”
What does its name mean?
- Oryctolagus — digging hareGreek oryktos 'dug up' + lagōs 'hare'
- cuniculus — rabbit — and also 'a tunnel or burrow'Latin, where the one word means both
Every part of this name is about digging: it means 'digging hare', and the second word is the very same Latin word used for an underground tunnel. In a way, the rabbit simply is its burrow.