Rabbit: Encyclopedia II - Rabbit - Humans' relationship with rabbits

Rabbit - Humans' relationship with rabbits

Humans' relationship with the European or ‘true’ rabbit was first recorded by the Phoenicians over 1,000 years BC, when they termed the Iberian Peninsula ‘i-shephan-im’ (literally, ‘the land of the rabbit’), which the Romans converted to the Latin form, Hispania, and hence the modern word Spain.

The European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is the only species of rabbit to be domesticated. All pet breeds of rabbits - such as dwarf lops, angoras, etc. - are of this species. However, rabbits and people interact in many different ways beyond domestication. Rabbits are an example of an animal which is treated as food, pet and pest by the same culture.

When used for food, rabbits are both hunted and raised for meat. Snares or guns along with dogs are usually employed when catching wild rabbits for food. In many areas rabbits are also raised for meat, a practice called cuniculture. Rabbit pelts are sometimes used as part of accessories, such as scarves. Rabbits are also very good producers of manure; their urine, being high in nitrogen, makes lemon trees very productive. Their milk may also be of great medicinal (see links below) or nutritional benefits due to its high protein content.

There are a number of health issues associated with the use of rabbits for meat, one of which is Tularemia or Rabbit Fever. Another is so-called rabbit starvation, due to either the low fat content of rabbit meat or amino acid deficiencies in rabbit meat and synthesis limitations in human beings.

• http://www.advance.uconn.edu/1997/970214/02149707.htm
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/852647.stm
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=20014704&dopt=Citation

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Humans' relationship with rabbits", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki