Oryctolagus cuniculus
Silhouette: Steven Traver · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) or coney is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula and southwestern France. It has been introduced to hundreds of locations around the world. Wild and domesticated European rabbits around the world can vary widely in size, shape, and colour. The average adult European rabbit is smaller than the European hare, though size and weight vary with habitat and diet.
European rabbits prefer grassland habitats and are herbivorous, mainly feeding on grasses and leaves, though they may supplement their diet with berries, tree bark, and field crops such as maize. They are prey to a variety of predators, including birds of prey, weasels, cats, and canids. The European rabbit's main defence against predators is to run and hide, using vegetation and its own burrows for cover. It is well known for digging networks of burrows, called warrens, where it spends most of its time when not feeding. The European rabbit lives in social groups centred around territorial females. European rabbits in an established social group will rarely stray far from their warren, with female rabbits leaving the warren mainly to establish nests where they will raise their young. Unlike hares, rabbits are born blind and helpless, requiring maternal care until they leave the nest.
The European rabbit has been hunted since the Paleolithic period, and raised as a food source since at least the first century BCE. It has also had major agricultural and biological impacts as an invasive species. It is the only domesticated species of rabbit, and all known breeds of domestic rabbit are its descendants. It has often been introduced to exotic locations as a food source or for sport hunting. It has been introduced to at least 800 islands and every continent except Antarctica, often with devastating effects on local biodiversity due to a lack of predators. However, the species is listed as near threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, as it has faced population decline in its native range due to overhunting, habitat destruction, and diseases such as myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease. This decline has directly led to negative impacts on populations of the Iberian lynx and Spanish imperial eagle, predators that rely on the rabbit as food. Wikipedia →
Call0:08
United Kingdom · 2020
© Simon Elliott · XC960433 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cairngorms National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 2 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 3 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 4 | Snowdonia National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 5 | Doñana National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 6 | Fertő-Hanság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 7 | Garden Route National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 8 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Essen | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 2 | Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 3 | Leeds | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | Cologne | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 5 | Liverpool | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 6 | Paris | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 7 | Birmingham | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 8 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland | |
| 9 | Rome | 🇮🇹 Italy | |
| 10 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
No species of the same family or order lives in Dublin, so these are its closest relatives here: other mammals.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a European Rabbit sighting in Dublin on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 6th most-seen of the 11 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and June
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a European Rabbit in Dublin on a given day, against under 5% in February, May, October and December, the lowest months.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most European Rabbit sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
24th of 28
Of the 28 cities where we can rate European Rabbit sightings, Dublin ranks 24th at about 10%. The best odds are in Essen (Germany, about 40%), Berlin (Germany, about 30%) and Leeds (United Kingdom, about 30%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the European Rabbit is recorded against all the mammals logged in Dublin (11 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
