Do bunnies come out at night?

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believe in what we do helps keep curiosity thriving. Head to buttwikids.org/donate to become a butt-wife fan club member or make a gift in any amount to support the show. Thanks and stay curious. This is, but why? A podcast for curious kids from Vermont Public. I'm Jane Lendell. On this show, we take questions from curious kids all over the world and we find answers. Today

we're going to talk about an animal. I know, I know, we talk about animals a lot, but that's because you send us a lot of questions about animals. Today's animal focus is of the small, fluffy kind. Let's see if you can guess what we're going to talk about. Some of

“these animals live in our homes as pets, but you'll also see them out in the wild, even if”

you live in a city. These critters are pretty well adapted to living in city parks or suburbs. These animals are mammals, and they're often mistaken for rodents, but they're actually a very specific kind of mammal called a lagamorph. One last hint, these animals are famous for their long years and poofy little white tails. Okay, you've probably guessed it now. We're talking about rabbits today, and our guest is someone who not only studies and loves

rabbits, but has also spent a lot of time living with them in her home. Her name is Margot Demelo. I study human animal interactions, and I have specialized in rabbits for my whole adult life and I've rescued them forever, but in an academic sense, I study all of the sort of facets of the human animal relationship. Professor Demelo teaches at Carol College in Montana, and her field is anthrozuology. Anthro means human, and zoology is the study of animals, so anthrozuology

is the study of how humans and other animals coexist and interact. She also rescues rabbits and rehabilitates them in her own home. I have 12 right now, which for me is a pretty low number. 12 sounds like a pretty high number to me. Professor Demelo says it can be pretty cool to live

with rabbits. I mean, I live in a multi species household. I always have rabbits are much more

recently domesticated and cats and certainly the dogs, dogs have been with us for tens of thousands of years, and so they still retain so much of their wildness and so to have an animal in your home that has a wild spirit. There's something about that that I don't know. There's something about that, but there are also annoying things about living with lots of rabbits. The gates, the baby gates, the bunny gates, whatever you want to call them, the expens, because I have right

now two groups and then a single and a single. I'm trying to integrate to one of my groups. That means I have to have gates in between them. Rabbits are super territorial and so introducing a rabbit to another rabbit is not necessarily an easy job and if you just left them to their own devices, there'd be a lot of fighting. At my age, climbing over those gates every day, this is not as fun as it was maybe when I was younger. Do you want to tell us how old you are or no? I'm 60.

So, 60 is not as fun climbing over gates. No. Marco DeMelo has been working as an animal rescuer for many, many years now, so we want to make sure we're not confusing you into thinking

“you should just pluck a wild rabbit from your local park or field and try to make it live in your house.”

And even domesticated rabbits are not always the easiest pets to have, so you should think

very carefully before badering your adults into getting you on. But in the meantime, let's learn more about rabbits and get to your questions. Before we dive in, do you remember a big vocabulary word I threw out at the beginning of this episode? I said rabbits are sometimes confused with rodents. In fact, they used to be classified as rodents, but now they're known to be in their own category of animal called a lagomorph, L-A-G-O-M-O-R-P-H. And then within the lagomorph order are rabbits, hairs,

Hairs look a lot like rabbits, but they have even longer ears and they're generally larger and

“taller than rabbits. Pikas have sort of a more rounded look, kind of like ground hogs or”

prairie dogs, with smaller rounded ears, and they live in cold usually mountainous regions of North America and Asia. One thing rabbits, hairs, and pikas have in common is that they have two front teeth called incisors that grow constantly throughout their lives. Lagomorphs also have

something really distinctive, a second set of front incisors that grow directly behind the first pair.

Imagine you're two front teeth, and if instead of just the two there you had two more behind and you had four front teeth instead of two. Want to know something else that you might find kind of gross about lagomorphs? They eat their own poop. Lagomorphs actually have two kinds of poop, and one of the kinds is a little bit softer and greysier and it's really high in vitamins. So they

“eat it. Maybe the less said about that, the better. So let's get back on track. And then the”

rabbit itself does not just one rabbit, there are hundreds of rabbits. So different general,

that is the plural for genus and different species. So many, many, many, many different rabbits

around the world. How come some rabbits are wild rabbits and other rabbits are pets? So there's of all of the hundreds of rabbits that exist on the planet, a single species has ever been domesticated, and that is our rabbit. And so the single rabbit that was domesticated is a colloquially known as the European rabbit. The genus and species is oracthelagus canniculus, and that is the one that was domesticated. So sometimes when I go to my county fair in the summertime, there are rabbits

there and there are long-haired rabbits and short-haired rabbits and rabbits that are white and

rabbits that are brown and rabbits that are black and rabbits that have long-shaggy ears. Those are

all one species of rabbit, even though they look so different. Yes, that is one species of rabbit. Every single domesticated rabbit on the planet is a European rabbit, is retelligus canniculus, and all of those variations, the color, the hair length, the ears, are only a few hundred years

“old. Wow, that's fascinating. All right, so penny is seven and wonders. Why are bunnies called bunnies?”

I see bunnies just a familiar kind of affectionate term. Some people use it to refer to the babies of rabbits, but technically that's not correct their kits. And so usually we use bunnies because it's a cute kind of it sounds softer, I think, in the mouth, to say they're rabbit and so, you know, when you talk about something that is cute or that you have some affection towards bunnies, just sort of a cute or word. So baby bunnies or baby rabbits, if you're using the proper name,

are called kits, same as fox babies. A few more interesting facts about rabbits. They live in burrows, so underground, and they prefer to live together in groups. They are a social species. They are gregarious. Most rabbit species are the domesticated rabbit. It is absolutely just like humans, just like most primates gregarious, which just means social. So they thrive in social groups. And that is one of the reasons why if you're going to have a pet rabbit, it's nice to have

a pet rabbits with a companion. I love that vocabulary word that you used gregarious. When we think of humans who are gregarious, we think of them as being very outgoing, they like to talk, they like to be in social situation. So that's sort of what you mean about rabbits, do they like to be together? Yes, yes, they're happier touching someone else. I get the sense that part of what they're doing is sort of catching up on their lives together by having this sort of

period where they're just kind of grooming each other's fur and checking in with each other. How my name is Myol. I'm free. I want to know why bunnies have fur. Because they would look terrible naked. That's the basic. No. Well, all mammals have fur. Mammals, that's one of the kind of characteristics of a mammal. And so they wouldn't be mammals, if they didn't have fur. They now rabbits are born. Here's another vocabulary term for you.

Rabbits are born altrucial. And what that means is they are born without fur. And their eyes

they are born precaution. And that means they do have their fur and their eyes are open and they're

kind of ready to go. So rabbits are more immature when they're born. But to be a mammal,

“to get entry into the mammal class, I think you have to have fur. Hi, my name is Hisha. And I'm”

nine living Israel. Why do bunnies have tails? My name is Azan, and I'm 50 years old. I live in Evergreen Colorado. Why do your bunnies have puffed fall tails? So their tails are useful as a form of communication. Humans show their emotions through their facial expressions. That's what our facial musculature has sort of evolved to do is to communicate our emotional feelings to outsiders.

And that's why we spend so much time looking at each other's faces. A lot of animals don't

have the same facial muscle structure as humans. And so they don't have the possibilities of moving their face. But they still need to communicate to others. And in particular, for rabbits because rabbits don't use their voices. They really have to use their bodies. And so you're going to have way more muscles around things like their ears, their tail. And so the tail, as cute and

“small as it is, signals really important stuff to other rabbits. Hang on a sec, did you catch that?”

Rabbits don't usually use their voices to communicate with each other. Margot Demelo says they do sometimes make noises if they're really scared or hurt. And they can also make nonverbal sounds by thumping their feet when they're alarmed or annoyed, or making a sort of purring sound when they're happy by clicking their teeth together really fast. But teeth grinding often suggests they're in distress. So if you have a rabbit as a pet, it's important to learn their

signals so you know what your rabbit might be communicating to you. Okay, back to Bunny's cute little tails. How come they're so small if the tail is important for communication? If we think about animals with longer tails, they are animals that often use them for balance. Rabbits are ground dwellers. And in fact, they're underground dwellers when we're talking about the European rabbit, they live in boroughs underground. And so they don't need any of that. Also pray animals,

think about other types of prey animals, think about deer. And those kinds of animals, they have shorter tails. Because if you are being chased by something, the last thing you want is to have a big tail behind you that somebody can grab. Are you able to look at a rabbit's tail, and you can tell anything about what it's feeling or it's behavior? There's yeah,

“there's definitely it's again it's subtle. If you live with a rabbit, you have to learn subtle”

more subtle kind of cues in their body. But one of the things that people who live with rabbits

always note, and especially if they have a rabbit who's got a particularly sassy personality,

that when they're doing something naughty, or you scold them because you don't want them chewing on their wall or whatever it is that they're doing, they will flick their tail at you. And again, it's very quick and it's kind of subtle. But it's pretty easy to, once you have that relationship with that rabbit to understand that they're basically saying, well, I'm going to do what you're asking, I'm not going to like it, and the same you turn around, I'm going to do it again.

Sassy bunnies, after the break, more questions about rabbits with Anthrosa Walla just Margot Demelo, like why do bunnies hop and can bunnies see behind themselves without turning their heads? This is But Why? I'm Jane Lindholm, and today we're learning about rabbits with Margot Demelo, a friend of rabbits and a scholar of human animal interactions. Hi, my name is Nicolina, and I'm seven years old. I live in Philadelphia, and I want to know

why bunnies hop instead of look like a regular animal. Right, rabbits actually can walk. A lot of people don't really say that they can walk when a rabbit is in a new environment and are very kind of curious or nervous, they will walk. The difference between walking and hopping is

When you hop what happens is your two front legs move independently, but the back move is a group.

“And for this particular type of prey animal, they need to have speed, and so they've got fairly,”

you know, muscular back legs, those back legs are also really useful for digging. The front legs do a lot of the work of the digging, but the back legs also do it. They push the dirt behind them and given that they are diggers. It serves them in those ways. It also makes their running away a little bit more erratic for a predator. They do this thing that we call being king in the rabbit world, that is not a scientific term, but we all use it. And what that means is in other animals

do this as well, other prey animals. It is a form of play where they hop and twist and sort of dance. And you see that with the young, young deer, limbs, you know, those kinds of animals will do that

as babies and they typically don't tend to do it as adults anymore. And for a rabbit it's super critical

because if you're being chased by a coyote or a fox or something and you don't run in just a straight line, but you twist and you turn, it's a good way to evade those predators. So I don't think I'm directly answering why they hop, but their hopping has been official to them, and it is in part a result of their back legs and the need to have these back legs the way that they are. Do hares and rabbits have different legs and different ways of moving. Yes. So when you look at a

jack rabbit, which is another confusing term because jack rabbits are hares, not rabbits. So they're again, they're born percocial. So they're already kind of getting started as soon as they come out and they are much faster and much stronger than a rabbit for sure. And one of the reasons for that is if we think about where a lot of hares live, we're talking open spaces, we're talking about not a lot of cover. We're also talking about animals that do not burrow and so for evasive tactics

for predators, those legs are critical. So yeah, they are fast, they're strong to be kicked by a

jack rabbit is not as far as I understand. I've never been kicked by a jack rabbit, but I've seen it

“and it's pretty significant. Those legs, they also there are ears which are another important”

defense mechanism for both rabbits and hairs and they can control their ears. They can move independently of each other. That's another super good way of deterring while detecting predators so that you can then take some evasive action. What do rabbits eat? They can eat a lot of things. Their bodies are evolved for them to eat a very high fiber diet and so that means typically consistent with kind of low nutrient, low calorie diet so they have to eat all day. They pretty

much are kind of foraging and munching all day long because they need to get if they're in the wild of a variety of food from all kinds of places to bring in a mix of the right nutrients that they need within our homes. Of course, you can just buy commercial pellets, which is what most people do, but even with the commercial pellets, which have all the nutrients, they still need the fiber from the hay and they still need the variety because they're an animal that is primed to be eating

all the time. If you only fed them, let's say two times a day, their guts can't handle that.

“Their digestive systems need to be moving all of the time and so that's why they need to have”

other kinds of food that they can get access to all day long and it's also just part of what they do. They're like, I need to have, I need to have a bite to eat right now. I just need to have a little bit of munching right now. So they eat high fiber foods. They are vegetarians. They do not eat any animal products, but they're also like us in that they have a sweet tooth, and so that means that fruit may adore candy, which is good for them as it is for us, probably worse, but they will

seal those still. Chocolate, they'll still anything that looks like it could be good, and they can really, really develop a problematic sweet tooth if you, if you indulge that. We have several questions from kids who have heard stories that have rabbits eating carrots, or lettuce, and

I'm stories have rabbits eating carrots? If that's not good for rabbits in real life."

“In small quantities, they're absolutely fine of vegetables. They are a fairly high sugar,”

vegetable, and that is another reason why they're going to like them. So, for domesticated rabbits in small doses, those kinds of foods are not bad, but normally rabbits need to eat. A lot of grasses, a lot of things that are just not as full of that sugar, as some of those vegetables, and fruits might be. My name is Pippa. I am six years old. I live in Bowen, Tidva Mont, why do bunnies have long ears? My name is L. I'm five years old. I live in California,

Campbell. Why do bunnies have long ears? So, the ears do a few things. I mentioned before that they're incredible for detecting predators, because they saw the longer the ear is the longer

the canal is, and they could funnel down sounds that other ears like ours would never be able

to detect. They pull them down in. The other is temperature regulation. Rabbits don't sweat. They don't

“pant, and every mammal has to have some sort of a way to regulate their temperature, and that's what”

those ears do. In particular, they will help in hot weather to kind of keep that animal a little bit cooler. Hi, my name is Bowen. I'm from Yereventil, Winger. I'm five years old. And why do Rabbits have eyeballs at the center of their heads? My name is Hannah, I'm five years old. I live in Roswell, Georgia, how can bunnies see behind their selves without moving their head? My name is Nikhil. I am six years old. I live in Orwood, Massachusetts. How can Rabbits look behind themselves without even

turning their heads? Sure. What they need, again, is preanimals is to be able to see around them. And so, when those eyes were on the side of your head, instead of the front, you don't have depth perception. But what you gain is almost 360 degree peripheral vision. So, yeah, they can see on the sides. They can see not fully, fully. There's going to be two blind spots in Rabbits vision. One is dope, directly in front of their nose, which is one reason why when you meet a new

rabbit, you don't put your hand out the way that you might throw a dog because they basically can't

see it. And then it's going to be a threat to them. So, right in front of their nose and immediately in the back of their head, right in the back, everything else they can see. A lot of prey animals have eyes that are spaced out toward the sides of their heads because they want to be able to see if something is coming. Right? My name is Gwen. I am six years old. I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Why do buddies come out at night? So, technically, they're not

not turn all their Cropuscular. Cropuscular is one of my favorite words. It refers to twilight that time right around dawn or dusk when the light is low. So, Cropuscular animals are most active in the hours around sunrise and sunset. And I am assuming that evolutionarily that has to do with again predators, there's going to be predators at any time, but depending on the environment in which you kind of emerged and for our domestic rabbits, that would be that Iberian peninsula,

so in other words, Spain and Portugal, millions of years ago, whatever predators were in that environment at that time is how those rabbits would have developed that type of a system of being most active morning and night. And then, remember, they have those burrows that then they could

“retreat to. So, if you want to look for rabbits in your neck of the woods, try going for a walk or”

sitting quietly at the edge of a head or field early in the morning or right around sunset. Okay, let's leave it there. Thanks to Margot Amelo for sharing her knowledge and love of rabbits with us. She's an assistant professor of anthrozoology at Carol College in Montana.

As always, if you have a question about anything, have an adult record you asking in on a

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We'll be back in two weeks with an all new episode. Until then, stay curious.

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