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Rabbit Animal Series editor: Jonathan Burt Already published Ant Charlotte Sleigh · ApeJohn Sorenson · Bear Robert E. Bieder · Bee Claire Preston Camel Robert Irwin · Cat Katharine M. Rogers · Chicken Annie Potts · Cockroach Marion Copeland CowHannah Velten · Crocodile Dan Wylie · Crow Boria Sax · Deer John Fletcher · Dog Susan McHugh Dolphin Alan Rauch · Donkey Jill Bough · Duck Victoria de Rijke · Eel Richard Schweid Elephant Dan Wylie · Falcon Helen Macdonald · Fly Steven Connor · Fox Martin Wallen Frog Charlotte Sleigh · GiraffeEdgar Williams · GorillaTed Gott and Kathryn Weir HareSimon Carnell · HorseElaine Walker · HyenaMikita Brottman · KangarooJohn Simons Leech RobertG. W. Kirk and Neil Pemberton · LionDeirdre Jackson · Lobster Richard J. King MonkeyDesmond Morris · MooseKevin Jackson · Mosquito Richard Jones · Octopus Richard Schweid Ostrich Edgar Williams · Otter Daniel Allen · OwlDesmond Morris · Oyster Rebecca Stott Parrot Paul Carter · Peacock Christine E. Jackson · PenguinStephen Martin · PigBrett Mizelle PigeonBarbara Allen · Rabbit Victoria Dickenson · Rat Jonathan Burt · RhinocerosKelly Enright Salmon Peter Coates · Shark Dean Crawford · SnailPeter Williams · Snake Drake Stutesman Sparrow Kim Todd·SpiderKatja and Sergiusz Michalski·SwanPeter Young · Tiger Susie Green Tortoise Peter Young · Trout James Owen · Vulture Thom van Dooren · Whale Joe Roman WolfGarry Marvin Rabbit Victoria Dickenson reaktion books To Thumper, the first of her tribe to share our home Published by reaktion books ltd 33Great Sutton Street London ec1v 0dx, uk www.reaktionbooks.co.uk First published 2014 Copyright © Victoria Dickenson 2014 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers Printed and bound in China by C&C Offset Printing Co., Ltd A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library isbn 978 1 78023 181 5 Contents 1 A Natural History 7 2 The Natural and Unnatural History of the European Rabbit 30 3 The ‘Useful’ Rabbit 61 4 Rabbit in Mind 94 5 Rabbits and Us 123 6 The Twenty-first-century Rabbit Paradox 155 A Few Rabbit Poems 181 Timeline 184 References 186 Select Bibliography 204 Associations and Websites 207 Acknowledgements 209 Photo Acknowledgements 210 Index 212 1 A Natural History The rabbit is a paradoxical beast. It is an animal at once both pet and supper, pest and product, invasive yet endangered, prolific yet declining. Even its natural history displays a strange contradiction, a story of an animal both wild and feral, with a worldwide distribution made possible by the actions of its greatest predator. ‘what, if anything, is a rabbit?’ Rabbits are lagomorphs, along with pikas and hares. The word lagomorph derives from the Greek and means ‘hare shaped’. It would seem evident that everyone knows what a rabbit is, but it has been less obvious to biologists and particularly to evolutionary palaeontologists, for whom rabbits have long presented a puzzle. In 1957, Albert E. Wood, a vertebrate palaeontologist special - izing in rodents, asked ‘What, if Anything, is a Rabbit?’1His answer was not a rodent, but not an antelope either. Until 1912 biologists since Linnaeus had grouped rabbits with rats and mice, based on their gnawing and constantly growing incisors. Closer examination of their teeth (vertebrate palaeontologists are as obsessed by teeth as dentists) revealed a distinctive differ - ence between the dental patterns of the lagomorphs and rodents, Oryctolagus cuniculus, the and it appeared that there were ‘no good reasons for continuing European rabbit. 7 the association of these two great groups of mammals’. However, Nuralagus rex, the giant were they more closely related to the bounding antelope and Minorcan rabbit. leaping deer, as suggested by the author of a paper of 1912that Reconstruction with a living separated them from the gnawing rats and scurrying mice?2 European rabbit, Lagomorphs today are once again grouped with rodents, but Oryctolagus not as closely as they once were. With Rodentia, Lagomorpha cuniculus, in the foreground for form one part of the Glires, a large mammalian grouping called comparison. a clade, which in turn is part of a larger dynasty termed a ‘crown clade’. There are four such dynasties of living mammal, each des cended from a common ancestor in the remote past. Not sur- prisingly for those who love rabbits, primates are also members of the great dynasty that includes the lagomorphs, making our disturbing sense of familiarity with them more plausible. While 8
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