Most often, when asked about the difference between a rabbit and a hare, one can hear the answer: "The rabbit is a domestic animal, and the hare is wild." But is this the only difference between them and is it possible to get joint offspring from them?
What is the difference between a rabbit and a bunny
Even outwardly, between them you can find many differences. Yes, they belong to the same Zaitsev family, they have a similar diet. But on many other points, both animals have many differences.
Did you know? Hares are not rodents and can eat meat.
Habitat
The very first difference is the habitat. Hares, originally from the Eurasian continent, gradually spread throughout the globe. They are not only in Australia, where wild rabbits that got there with the colonists occupied this niche, quickly got accustomed and multiplied on a catastrophic scale, turning into pests. They even built a special fence-barrier.
They feel good on the territory of both American continents. In North America, 50% of all rabbits on Earth live. But in Europe, in the wild, it will be extremely rare to meet them - here oblique reign.
Appearance
Externally, distinguishing them is quite simple. Although both animals have long ears, a short tail and long hind legs, the differences between them are enough:
- smaller rabbits;
- hares change their coat color depending on the season;
- in rabbits, the ears are slightly shorter and more rounded;
- the hare's legs are adapted for long jumps, therefore they are stronger and longer;
- the body of the hare is thinner, more muscular, lean.
Lifestyle
They differ in their way of life. Rabbits are sedentary creatures. They dig burrows and live there in large families, expanding and improving their “living conditions”. In case of danger, they begin to make noise and squeak, trying to warn their relatives. They try to spend most of the day in a hole and do not show themselves once again.
Hares, however, are loners, they do not form permanent pairs, converge together only during the mating season. There are no permanent shelters - they wander. If he sees danger - flees or digs a shelter to sit out.Did you know? Despite the love of loneliness, obliques can communicate with their own kind while beating off paws.
Progeny
Rabbits give birth all year round, the pregnancy of the female lasts about a month. In one offspring brings up to 16 rabbits. Cubs are born helpless, blind, without hair. A rabbit feeds newborns with its milk 4 weeks after birth. After which they begin an independent life.
The hare carries the offspring twice more than 40–55 days. For a year, it can give 4 offspring, which consist of four rabbits, which are born fully formed, sighted, covered with wool, and after a few hours the mother leaves the cubs - they are ready to live independently and eat like adults.
Important! The fertility of rabbits is explained by a bifurcated uterus - it is able to endure two offspring at once.
Is it possible to cross a hare with a rabbit
Attempts to breed joint offspring were often carried out. But it all ended in failure. There are differences between them even at the genetic level - they have a different number of chromosomes. Crawls have 22 chromosomes, while obliques have 24 chromosomes. Perhaps this is why these animals refuse to even live nearby and begin to quarrel if they are together.
Despite some similarities and belonging to the same family, there are quite a lot of differences between rabbits and hares, both in lifestyle, in habitats, and in relation to offspring. The differences are so significant that they are not even crossbreeding.
