European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus): Facts and Warrens

What does a European rabbit look like?

A wild European rabbit has soft, grizzled gray-brown fur, with a reddish patch on the nape of the neck and pale gray or white underparts. The short tail is brown on top and bright white underneath. When a rabbit runs, that white “scut” flashes conspicuously, which is thought to warn other rabbits of danger. The feet are fully furred, which helps on wet ground and snow.

The large eyes sit high on the sides of the head and give an almost all-round view, an important defense for a prey animal. The ears are long but clearly shorter than a hare’s and lack black tips. Color varies more than many people expect: black (melanistic) wild rabbits are not unusual, and sandy or pale individuals also occur. Rabbits molt once a year, starting in spring.

Like hares and pikas, rabbits are lagomorphs, not rodents. One easy difference is a second, small pair of peg-like upper incisors hidden behind the main front teeth. Rodents have only one upper pair.

How big is a European rabbit?

The European rabbit is a medium-sized rabbit, smaller and much shorter-legged than the European hare. Size depends strongly on food: rabbits on rich farmland grow bigger than those on poor, sandy grassland, and the native rabbits of southwestern Iberia are the smallest of all.

Wild rabbits heavier than about 2.3 kg (5 lb) are uncommon. Unlike in hares, male rabbits tend to be slightly more heavily built than females. Domestic breeds range far beyond these figures, from dwarf breeds of around 1 kg (2 lb) to giant breeds that can weigh several times more than any wild rabbit.

Habitat and range

The species is native to the Iberian Peninsula and southern France, where two subspecies live: O. c. algirus in the southwest of Iberia and O. c. cuniculus in the northeast and France. Its ideal habitat is short grassland close to safe cover such as scrub, hedgerows, rocks or woodland edges. In Spain and Portugal it is closely tied to Mediterranean scrubland.

The rabbit’s modern range is mostly the work of people. Romans spread it around the Mediterranean, and in the Middle Ages it was introduced to Britain, Ireland and much of central and northern Europe, where it was first kept in managed warrens for meat and fur. Sailors later left rabbits on hundreds of islands as a food supply. Today it is established in Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina, on many islands, and in small parts of North America and Africa. Soft, well-drained soils on slopes, banks and sand dunes suit its burrows best.

What do European rabbits eat?

European rabbits are herbivores that mainly graze grasses and low herbs, choosing young, tender shoots. Near farmland they also eat cereals, root crops and other crops, and in hard winters they gnaw bark from shrubs and young trees. They feed mostly at dusk, at night and at dawn, and rarely stray more than 25–50 m (80–160 ft) from their burrows.

To get the most from a low-quality diet, rabbits eat some of their own droppings. Soft, moist pellets called caecotropes, rich in vitamins and proteins made by gut bacteria, are swallowed straight from the body, usually while the rabbit rests underground by day. Only the hard, dry pellets are left lying on the ground. Heavy grazing keeps turf short and flower-rich, so rabbits shape whole landscapes. Read more in What do wild rabbits eat?

Warrens and social life

Unlike most other rabbits, the European rabbit digs extensive burrow systems and lives in colonies. A warren is a network of tunnels and chambers with many entrances, usually 10–50 cm (4–20 in) across, and big warrens grow over many generations. Some exits are dug from the inside and have no spoil heap, giving rabbits a hidden escape route.

A warren is home to a social group of typically one to several bucks (males) and several does (females). Both sexes have dominance hierarchies: top bucks father most of the young, and top does claim the best nest sites. Groups defend their territory against neighbors and mark it with latrines, piles of droppings, and with scent from a gland under the chin, a habit called chinning. Home ranges are small, often around a few hectares.

Communication and warning signals

Rabbits are mostly quiet, but they communicate constantly through scent, posture and touch. When a rabbit spots danger it may thump the ground hard with its hind feet, a signal that other rabbits nearby can hear and feel, before bolting for the nearest hole with its white tail flashing. A frightened or caught rabbit gives a loud scream. Bucks grunt softly in the breeding season, and an angry rabbit growls. See why rabbits thump for more on these alarm signals.

Reproduction and life cycle

European rabbits are famous breeders. The main breeding season runs from late winter to summer in northern Europe and from autumn to spring in Iberia, but in mild places rabbits can breed almost all year. Pregnancy lasts about 30 days, and a doe can mate again within hours of giving birth.

A typical litter has 3–7 young, and a doe may raise several litters a year. Before giving birth she digs a separate short burrow called a stop or stab, lines it with grass, moss and fur pulled from her belly, and seals the entrance with soil each time she leaves. The kittens are born naked, blind and deaf, weighing only about 30–35 g (1.1–1.2 oz). Their mother visits just once a day, usually at night, to nurse them for a few minutes on very rich milk.

The young open their eyes at around 10–11 days, leave the nest at about 18–21 days and are weaned at about four weeks. Does can conceive from roughly three to four months old in good conditions, although they reach full breeding capacity later.

Lifespan, predators and disease

Most wild rabbits die young. Mortality in the first year often reaches about 90%, and the typical wild lifespan is under two years, although a few survive to around nine years. Domestic rabbits protected from predators and disease commonly live 8–12 years.

Almost every predator in its range eats rabbits, including red foxes, wildcats, polecats, stoats, badgers (which dig out nests), eagles, buzzards and owls. In Spain and Portugal two endangered specialists depend on it: the Iberian lynx and the Spanish imperial eagle. The red fox is the most widespread rabbit predator in Europe.

Two viral diseases have reshaped rabbit numbers. Myxomatosis, spread deliberately in Australia in 1950 and in France in 1952, killed up to 99% of infected rabbits at first; survivors gradually became more resistant. Rabbit hemorrhagic disease appeared in the 1980s, and a new strain, RHDV2, emerged in France in 2010 and spread quickly through Iberia.

Conservation status

On the IUCN Red List the European rabbit is listed as Endangered (assessed in 2018, published in 2019), with a decreasing population. The global assessment counts only its native range, where numbers have fallen steeply since the 1950s because of disease, loss of scrub-and-pasture mosaics and overhunting. A separate 2025 IUCN assessment for Europe as a whole rated it Near Threatened, reflecting stable trends in the northeastern subspecies and continuing declines in the southwestern one.

So the same animal is an endangered keystone species in Iberia and a major invasive pest elsewhere. Find out more in Are rabbits endangered?

Myths and facts

“Rabbits are rodents.” They are not. Rabbits and hares belong to the order Lagomorpha, separate from rodents, and differ in their teeth, skulls and digestion.

“Rabbits and hares are the same.” Hares are a different genus. They are larger and longer-legged, live above ground and give birth to furred young with open eyes. The rabbit vs hare comparison explains the differences.

“Monks domesticated rabbits around AD 600 after a pope declared newborn rabbits fit to eat in Lent.” Researchers who traced this story in 2018 found no such papal decree; domestication was a gradual process that began much earlier, at least by Roman times, when rabbits were kept in enclosures.

Rabbits and people

People have hunted European rabbits since the Stone Age, and the Romans kept them in walled enclosures. Domestication turned the species into a farm animal, a laboratory animal and one of the most popular pets in Europe and North America, with hundreds of breeds and color varieties.

Where it was introduced without its natural enemies, the rabbit became one of the most damaging invasive mammals on Earth, overgrazing pastures, causing soil erosion and competing with native wildlife. The best-known case is Australia, where a release of a few dozen rabbits in 1859 led to hundreds of millions within decades: see how rabbits got to Australia. In much of western Europe, by contrast, conservationists now worry about too few rabbits, because short, rabbit-grazed turf supports rare plants, insects and birds.