Have you ever caught sight of a wild rabbit on a country walk sporting what seemed to be especially long ears? It might have led you to wonder if it was a hybrid rabbit that had some hare in its parentage.
Can rabbits and hares crossbreed?
Well, a few minutes’ thought back to other country walks and you’d come to the correct conclusion that if hares and rabbits could interbreed there would be an awful lot more harrabbits around.
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The species we call the European rabbit is classed by biologists as a member of the Oryctolagus genus, while the species European hare is from the Lepus genus. Animals that are from the same genus but different species, and share a number of key characteristics – eg, horses and donkeys, which are Equus caballus and Equus asinus respectively – can interbreed (in that case producing a mule) but the offspring are almost invariably sterile.
Why can't rabbits and hares crossbreed?
By contrast, animals from different genera have rarely, if ever, been observed to cross breed because they have significantly diverse physical characteristics and behaviours, despite perhaps having a similar outward appearance.
Rabbits, for instance, have 44 chromosomes in their genetic makeup, hares have 48, and their reproductive cycles are quite different. Where rabbits are fertile all year round, have a 27- to 30-day gestation period and produce up to 12 kits, hares only mate between March and July, their pregnancies last for around 42 days and they only have between two and four offspring. The early days of life differ strikingly, too.
Rabbit kits are born blind and furless, totally dependent on their mothers for the first few weeks in their underground den. Hares are up-and-at-‘em from the start, born with full coats of fur and the ability to leave the nest immediately. Because hares live above ground, rather than in burrows like rabbits, the young leverets have to disperse from their shallow nests in the hollow of a field during the day, to increase their chances of surviving predators. At night they congregate back at their birthplace for their mother to feed them.
The lifestyles of rabbits and hares are also a barrier to interbreeding. Although the two lagomorphs can share habitats, hares tend to live above ground and they prefer solitude or small groups. Rabbits mostly live crowded lives in communal burrows, the exception being the cottontail rabbit that’s found in the Americas. That species makes an above-ground nest lined with grass and fur for shelter and giving birth. If threatened by a predator they will borrow another animal’s burrow for safety.
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What features even more in discounting a marriage of rabbit and hare is the classic behaviour of a hare in the breeding season. The female will fight off all comers if she isn’t ready to mate – the well-known hare ‘boxing’ bouts where she makes very plainly and painfully her unwillingness to entertain a male.
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When she is receptive, she initiates a high-speed, cross-country chase, leading a group of hopeful males in a stamina-testing run where only the fittest survive the course. At that point the female will stop and allow a mating to take place. It’s hard to imagine a male rabbit with its much shorter legs and hopping style of movement taking part in that gruelling physical contest!