Life was peaceful for the rabbits until the Romans arrived in Spain during the Second Punic war in the 2nd century B.C. Much to the rabbits dismay the Romans quickly cottoned on to the idea of farming them in a practise known as cuniculture. Initially they kept them in fenced off scrubby areas, but using the first known example of a now standard prison escape tactic, the rabbits kept tunneling out! It wasn't long before every rabbit enclosure was as closely guarded as the emperor's own palace. Could this slightly unwise use of centurions have contributed in a small way to the downfall of the Roman Empire?

The increasing trade amongst countries by sea and land helped to introduce rabbits to every continent except for Antarctica. Humans were now getting good at growing crops and as more land was cultivated into fields full of food, humans inadvertently provided rabbits with ideal habitats to live in. Combined with their famously fast breeding rate this ensured that they established themselves quickly wherever they went.

The domestication of rabbits is believed to have begun when medieval monks began to keep rabbits in cages for food. Newly born rabbits, Laurices, were not considered to be meat and were therefore allowed to be eaten during Lent. Monks tend to be dedicated fellows and it wasn't long before they were studiously selecting and breeding rabbits to create new fur colours.

The industrial revolution meant many people moving from the countryside into towns and they brought their rabbits with them. As a pair of rabbits can produce up to 90kgs of meat a year they were an important source of food. But in the 19th century things started to look up for the rabbits as the Victorians began dabbling in breeding them for shows and competitions. Since then we have more or less stopped eating rabbits in the UK although in many other countries they are still a regular part of the diet.

1 Rump
2 Loin
3 Shoulder
4 Neck
5 Ears
6 Eye
7 Nose
8 Mouth
9 Dewlap
10 Foreleg
11 Toenails
12 Hock
13 Tail / Scut

Ears:
With their big ears Rabbits obviously have good hearing but even better than that they can move their ears independently allowing them to pinpoint danger from any direction.

Eyes:
Rabbits also have big eyes. A rabbit's eyes protrude from the side of its head which gives them near 360º vision - the one area they can't see is right in front of their own nose! To 'see' whether something is edible a rabbit will touch the object with their sensitive top lip

Teeth:
Rabbits teeth are always growing to cope with all that gnawing. In fact, if they didn't wear them down by eating grass, they could grow up to 5 inches a year! This is why feeding your rabbit a lot of hay is the best way of keeping their teeth in good condition. The presence of their 'peg' teeth makes them, along with Hares, stand apart from other rodents in their own sub-order 'Lagomorph'.

Nose:
Why does a rabbit's nose twitch? It's so that all of the highly sensitive receptors are exposed to the air. A sign that a rabbit is very relaxed is that its nose stops twitching as this is one of its many ways of detecting imminent danger.

Digestion:
Rabbits - the ultimate in grass nutrient extraction!
Rabbits have a two stage digestive system. After the chewed food passes from the upper digestive tract where it's been mixed with stomach juices into the lower digestive system, the fibrous material is taken straight out and is turned into what we recognize as rabbit droppings - little fibrous balls.
The rest of the mixture i.e. the liquid and the non-fibrous bits go on to the caecum - a big fermentation tank, where lots of bacteria work at releasing all the goodness from the plant matter. Most of this is then packed up into pellets called caecotrophs that the rabbit eats straight from its bottom! At the second time of eating many more nutrients are absorbed after the bacteria from the caecum has had time to act.

Back:
Rabbits have a relatively weak back and because of the strength in their back legs, they can cause themselves considerable damage. Make sure children are supervised when they handle their rabbit and can properly support its back and legs. Rabbits will struggle if they feel insecure. Don’t forget that rabbits prefer interaction at ground level as this is their natural environment.

Legs:
With extremely powerful back legs rabbits can perform big jumps and dig big holes. If they are in danger a sudden whack on the ground can make a surprisingly loud noise alerting another rabbits to the problem.

Tail:
Also known as a 'scut' the rabbit's tail is more than decoration! In wild rabbits the underside is pale and is used as a danger signal and for communication when several rabbits are feeding over a big area.