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Animal Size

European rabbit size: How big do they get?

How big does a European rabbit get? Here is an overview over the average adult age:

A grown European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) reaches an average size of 40 cm (1′ 4″).

When born, they have an average size of 0 cm (0′ 0″). During their lifetime of about 18 years, they grow from 39 grams (0.09 lbs) to 1.59 kg (3.51 lbs). Talking about reproduction, European rabbits have 5 babies about 4 times per year. The European rabbit (genus: Oryctolagus) is a member of the family Leporidae.

As a reference: Humans reach an average body size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) while carrying 62 kg (137 lbs). A human woman is pregnant for 280 days (40 weeks) and on average become 75 years old.

The average adult size of a European rabbit is (1' 4

The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) or coney is a species of rabbit native to southwestern Europe (including Spain, Portugal and western France) and to northwest Africa (including Morocco and Algeria). It has been widely introduced elsewhere, often with devastating effects on local biodiversity. However, its decline in its native range (caused by the diseases myxomatosis and rabbit calicivirus, as well as overhunting and habitat loss), has caused the decline of its highly dependent predators, the Iberian lynx and the Spanish imperial eagle. It is known as an invasive species because it has been introduced to countries on all continents with the exception of Antarctica, and has caused many problems within the environment and ecosystems. Feral European rabbits in Australia have had a devastating impact, due in part to the lack of natural predators there.The European rabbit is well known for digging networks of burrows, called warrens, where it spends most of its time when not feeding. Unlike the related hares (Lepus spp.), rabbits are altricial, the young being born blind and furless, in a fur-lined nest in the warren, and they are totally dependent upon their mother. Much of the modern research into wild rabbit behaviour was carried out in the 1960s by two research centres. One was the naturalist Ronald Lockley, who maintained a number of large enclosures for wild rabbit colonies, with observation facilities, in Orielton, Pembrokeshire. Apart from publishing a number of scientific papers, he popularised his findings in a book The Private Life of the Rabbit, which is credited by Richard Adams as having played a key role in his gaining “a knowledge of rabbits and their ways” that informed his novel Watership Down. The other group was the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia, where numerous studies of the social behavior of wild rabbits were performed. Since the onset of myxomatosis, and the decline of the significance of the rabbit as an agricultural pest, few large-scale studies have been performed and many aspects of rabbit behaviour are still poorly understood.

Animals of the same family as a European rabbit

We found other animals of the Leporidae family:

Animals with the same size as a European rabbit

Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as European rabbit:

Animals with the same litter size as a European rabbit

Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (5) as a European rabbit:

Animals with the same life expectancy as a European rabbit

Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a European rabbit:

Animals with the same weight as a European rabbit

As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Oryctolagus cuniculus: