The difference between rabbits and hares is not only in body shape (hares have larger ears, and are much skinnier,) but also in how the young are born. Rabbit babies are blind and furless, where hare babies are furry and have open eyes.
Kingdom: Animalia (well, I wouldn't expect them to be plants)
Phylum: Chordata (because they have backbones!)
Class: Mammalia (because females breastfeed their babies)
Order: Lagomorpha (which includes Rabbits, Hares, and Pikas)
Family: Leporidae (...so it's obviously a rabbit!)
Genus: Oryctolagus
Species: cunniculus
Wild Rabbits live in underground systems of tunnels called warrens. In the warren, you have a bunch of females, their babies, and usually one male. A male rabbit is called a Buck, a female a Doe, and a baby a Kit. Rabbits are not nocturnal or diurnal. Instead, they are most active during dawn and dusk, and sleep in the middle of the day and night. Rabbits are herbivores, obviously.
When rabbits come out to feed and danger approaches, the male will thump loudly on the ground with his hind feet. This is a warning, and all the rabbits will bound into their warren, where they will *hopefully* find safety. (You can just hear Thumper now, thumping his foot and playing in that hollow tree trunk with Bambi!)
To show affection, rabbits will lick others. Your rabbit might do this, or it might just bump you with its nose. Although rabbits are social animals and will occasionally play with another rabbit, they are territorial as well. Keep in mind that you should never house two rabbits in one pen - you'll either start a farm without knowing it, or there will be lots of fighting. If you let two rabbits run together, the result is the same.
Rabbits star in a variety of stories, from folklore to the Fiction section in your local library. Rabbit's feet are often considered lucky (who know why?) Peter Cottontail from Beatrix Potter's many stories was a rabbit. In the Velveteen Rabbit, the main character - a plush, stuffed rabbit - was based off of the Rex rabbits and thier fur. One of the animals in the Chinese Zodiac is a rabbit. Try as he might, the Trix Rabbit may never get some Trix! Who could forget cuddly Thumper in the movie Bambi? And I think we've all been acquainted with Bugs Bunny. Its obvious the rabbit, sometimes a symbol of innocence and fertility, has known and loved the world over.
