Rabbit Lesson Plan - Wildlife Waystation

LESSON PLAN: BUNNY RABBITS
By Susan Johnson
Objective:
Education is a big part of the Wildlife Waystation’s mission. Lesson plans
are available to download for students, teachers and anyone interested in learning more
about wild and exotic animals.
Rabbits
There are several rabbits at the Wildlife Waystation. Their team members bring them
food trays and clean their enclosures.
Did You Know?
Rabbits inhabit every
continent but Antarctica.
***
In the UK the rabbit is the
third most popular pet.
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A rabbit can run up to 35
miles per hour.
***
Animal Facts:
Rabbits live on every continent on this planet except for
Antarctica. They inhabit meadows, woods, forests,
grasslands, deserts and wetlands. More than half of the
world’s rabbit population lives in North America. Rabbits
can live in a majority of different climates. There are about
30 species of rabbits in this world.
Since they chiefly feed on plants, rabbits are considered
herbivores. In the wild they graze on grass, forbs, and
leafy weeds or if really lucky they can find someone’s
bountiful vegetable garden. Yum! Their diets contain
large amounts of cellulose, which is hard to digest. To
solve this problem they produce two different types of
feces, one in the form of round pellets, the other called
caecotrophs, produced in the digestive tract. Rabbits eat the
caecotrophs as they come out the anus. This way they can
digest their food further and extract sufficient nutrients
The world’s largest bunny,
Darius, weighs 50 pounds
and is insured for around
$1.6 million.
***
Domestic rabbits are born
fur-less.
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Rabbits can see behind
them, but have a blind spot
in front of their face.
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Rabbits have 28 teeth.
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Happy bunnies jump and
twist, which is called a
binky, they can jump up to
36 inches.
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since they cannot “chew their cuds” like other
herbivores.
Rabbits are considered a prey animal, therefore they are
quite prolific. One female bunny can have a litter from
1 to 14 kittens (as baby bunnies are called) after a
gestation period of 28-31 days and can be impregnated
within minutes of giving birth. Hypothetically she
could have one litter per month. That is a lot of little
bunnies running around in a year.
I guess when everyone is looking at you as prey you
become a natural born runner, which bunnies are as they
can reach speeds of up to 40 miles per hour. I guess
when you live life in the fast lane everything moves
faster as a bunny’s heartbeats 130-325 a minute and
their noses twitch 20-120 times per minute. Bunnies do
what is called binky when they are happy by jumping
and twisting in the air; they are capable of jumping as
high as 36 inches. This can also help them get out of a
dangerous situation or over a fence into someone’s
delectable garden.
Rabbits are such very fascinating creatures and are
probably a lot more interesting than people give them
credit for. Like did you know that rabbits have two sets
of incisor teeth, one behind the other? That they can
only sweat through the pads on the bottom of their feet.
They purr and groom themselves not unlike a cat. They
can pretty much see all the way around them, except for
one blind spot right between their eyes. Domestic
rabbits are born fur-less. Their teeth never stop growing
through their entire life. Rabbits cannot vomit. A fourpound rabbit can drink as much water as a twenty-pound
dog. Rabbits can suffer heat stroke and literally be
scared to death.
Rabbits are one of the animals in the Chinese Zodiac.
They represent graciousness, kindness sensitivity,
compassion, tenderness and elegance. And on top of all
of that, they are just so dang cute.
Did You Know?
Domestic rabbits cannot
breed with wild rabbits.
***
The only place a rabbit
sweats is through the pads
of its feet.
***
All rabbits live in
underground burrows except
for the Cottontail rabbits.
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QUIZ & LEARN
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
What are baby rabbits called?
What never stops growing on a bunny rabbit?
Who are two of the most famous bunnies?
What was the original name of an adult rabbit?
How many times per minute does a bunnies nose twitch?
When are rabbits most active?
Who first domesticated rabbits?
(See how you did by checking out the answers at the bottom of the page).
Project
Create your rabbit pawns and play the Rabbit Hop board game.
Download the template from our website.
Quiz Answers:
1) Kittens
2) Teeth
3) Bugs Bunny and the Easter Bunny
4) Coney
5) 20-120 times
6) Dawn and Dusk
7) Monks in the 5th Century in France.