<- Back To Species Index

Ancestor: West Catland Sand Rabbit

Size: Around 45 cm, some species smaller.

Dietary Needs: Can survive on a quite nutrient poor diet of dry vegetation, occasional wet vegetation and supplemented with invertebrates such as insects and earthworms, plant roots and fallen fruits. Relies heavily on re-consuming food by excreting caecal pellets and consuming them immediately. Their caecum is larger than their ancestors to accommodate for more of their food being turned into caecal pellets, which means more of their food can go through this double digestion process.

Life Cycle: Family sizes are carefully controlled so that they don't become too large, at most having 2-10 adults and a few kits and juveniles. Unlike their ancestors they live in extended family groups, and may even adopt strangers into their group. They also regularly lose members when the group grows and some young rabbits leave to find a smaller group to join.

The rabbits can reproduce all year round in the safety and microclimate of their burrows. Being able to eat roots allows them to continue to be reproductively active well into the hottest, driest parts of the year.

Only the dominant male and female reproduce. Other adults have a chance at dominating if the dominant adults become sick, old or are eaten by a predator. There is constant pressure and testing for weakness between adults, despite their cooperative living. Non-dominant adults are not allowed to mate, though some manage to do so inconspicuously. Kits of non-dominant group members are at risk of being killed by the dominant pair, but this can depend on the individual personalities of the dominant pair, the size of the group and the closeness of relation of the kits to the dominant pair. They aren't likely to kill their own nieces or nephews, for example.

The kits take around 3 months to mature, but are likely to stay in the group longer to learn social skills.

Other: Families of these rabbits dig large and extensive burrow networks to live and survive in. As well as personal chambers, they make a larder for extra food and have specialised, narrow deep tunnels for escaping from predators and fire. These rabbits have a metabolic quirk that allows them to survive low oxygen environments that would normally kill other mammals. When fire strikes the burrow location they enter the deep tunnels and wait it out. Here they go into a sleepy state and as CO2 rises and O2 drops, the metabolism of the rabbit slows to that of an extremely deep hibernation, near-death. An internal clock begins to count-down. When this times out, a specialised type of blood cell exclusive to this rabbit releases an extra burst of oxygen, waking the rabbits up. It's a matter of probability that the fire has passed by this point, unlucky are those who wake too early. They can also use this method to wait out predators that are attempting to raid the nest, but are too wide to enter the deep narrow tunnels. Those predators will eventually tire and give up, or need air.

Despite their subterranean adaptations they are perfectly capable of terrestrial living, but preferably emerge at night when it isn't too hot or too bright.

Peace and cooperation in the burrow relies on social etiquette and the selection against selfish behaviour. Part of this is tunnel etiquette to prevent jams. Hairs on their tail and face can feel who is where and help form a picture of the rabbit's environment around it, effectively giving it eyes on the back of it's head, though short-range. These hairs also trap each rabbit's unique scent, which is important for identity and peace of mind in the group. Because they can sometimes leave their home group and join a new one, strangers are not treated as threats. They are however treated somewhat coldly and not trusted and must fend for themselves more until they become a useful member of the group, or no worse than slowly habituate the group to their presence.

Tolerant of low water availability. Can get all of their water from their food, but should they need more they may drink morning condensation or dig to groundwater level if possible.