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Ancestor: Oryctolagus cuniculus domesticus (Domestic Rabbit)

Descendants: Leplofts

Size: On average 55 cm nose to tail when fully grown.

Dietary Needs: Mainly eats grass, but also  eats herbaceous catnip, fruits in season, budding leaves of the few elderberry and mulberry varieties that can be found in the grasslands.

Life Cycle: Herds mix frequently, meaning there are always fresh opportunities to find new mates. Males can get competitive for mates, showing off with speed and jumping in preference to getting into a fight. There is some selection from the females also, as she is attracted to a clearly defined coat pattern, and males that win races and performance contests, such as side-by-side skipping or faux chasing with sharp angle changes.

Less time is spent in burrows than the ancestors, and the baby rabbits are hopping around and playing with rabbits from other litters within a week. This is because they are more physically built for speed and stamina rather than being able to squeeze into narrow spaces, so the wider burrows offer less protection from cats than they used to. It's more beneficial if the baby rabbits are able to get alert and moving around as quickly as possible. They produce around 7 babies which end up following their mother around and start grazing within two weeks, though they continue to need milk for a few weeks more.

At 3 months they are sexually mature. They are capable of producing their own litter in the same year that they were born.

Other: They have a more rigid physical frame, and while this makes them less able to squeeze into tight spaces such as narrow burrows, they are much more efficient at long distances and sustained travel at a relaxed bounding pace. Much of their survival necessitates hasty travel, from finding food and water, to keeping clear of oncoming fires all over great distances of featureless terrain. They are also faster at quick reflex action to spring away in the event of an attack.

They are gregarious, preferring the presence of many others of their own kind without necessarily forming close bonds with those others. Close bonds tend to be reserved for close family members in micro-groups within the herd simply known as families, which are parent-offspring and sibling relationships. Herds are comprised of multiple families. Herds meet either by accident or through tracking frequently, where mingling and member swapping occur. This way herds stay genetically mixed and of a reasonable member count.

If a cat attacks a mother with babies, all the babies scatter in separate directions for around 50 metres before stopping and going silent. One may be sacrificed in this strategy, but the rest will likely go unnoticed unless the cat gets lucky or one of the babies moves. This is why they remain completely still until they hear a beckon from their mother, even if they have to wait hours for the cat to leave the area. If they get cold or hungry they enter a deep sleep with lowered metabolism, which they will be woken from if they are exposed to their mother's heat or to milk.