It is hard to guess what a European rabbit weights. But we have the answer:
An adult European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) on average weights 1.59 kg (3.51 lbs).
The European rabbit is from the family Leporidae (genus: Oryctolagus). It is usually born with about 39 grams (0.09 lbs). They can live for up to 18 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 40 cm (1′ 4″). On average, European rabbits can have babies 4 times per year with a litter size of 5.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
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:
- Black jackrabbit bringing 1.27 kilos (2.8 lbs) to the scale
- Mountain hare bringing 3.11 kilos (6.86 lbs) to the scale
- Korean hare with a size of 46.5 cm (1′ 7″)
- Manchurian hare bringing 1.84 kilos (4.06 lbs) to the scale
- Black-tailed jackrabbit bringing 2.42 kilos (5.34 lbs) to the scale
- Bunyoro rabbit bringing 2.51 kilos (5.53 lbs) to the scale
- Yunnan hare bringing 2.02 kilos (4.45 lbs) to the scale
- New England cottontail with a weight of 814 grams
- Tolai hare bringing 1.59 kilos (3.51 lbs) to the scale
- Indian hare bringing 2.3 kilos (5.07 lbs) to the scale
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:
- Angolan genet with a weight of 1.86 kilos (4.1 lbs)
- Southern viscacha with a weight of 1.54 kilos (3.4 lbs)
- Back-striped weasel with a weight of 1.5 kilos (3.31 lbs)
- Boodie with a weight of 1.45 kilos (3.2 lbs)
- Riverine rabbit with a weight of 1.75 kilos (3.86 lbs)
- African savanna hare with a weight of 1.76 kilos (3.88 lbs)
- Tree pangolin with a weight of 1.54 kilos (3.4 lbs)
- Northern brown bandicoot with a weight of 1.51 kilos (3.33 lbs)
- Grandidier’s mongoose with a weight of 1.4 kilos (3.09 lbs)
- Black giant squirrel with a weight of 1.61 kilos (3.55 lbs)
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:
- Verreaux’s sifaka with a size of 47.2 cm (1′ 7″)
- Angolan genet with a size of 47.3 cm (1′ 7″)
- Livingstone’s fruit bat with a size of 34 cm (1′ 2″)
- Southern naked-tailed armadillo with a size of 45.5 cm (1′ 6″)
- White-eared opossum with a size of 36 cm (1′ 3″)
- Yunnan hare with a size of 47 cm (1′ 7″)
- Pale fox with a size of 43 cm (1′ 5″)
- Bahamian hutia with a size of 39.5 cm (1′ 4″)
- Spotted giant flying squirrel with a size of 39.8 cm (1′ 4″)
- Woolly flying squirrel with a size of 45.9 cm (1′ 7″)
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:
- Cape mole-rat
- Paucident planigale
- Long-clawed shrew
- Northern red-backed vole
- Yellow-pine chipmunk
- Garden dormouse
- Meadow vole
- Grey red-backed vole
- Lesser fat-tailed jerboa
- Southern red-backed vole
Animals with the same life expectancy as a European rabbit
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a European rabbit:
- Small-toothed palm civet with an average maximal age of 15.83 years
- Red-handed tamarin with an average maximal age of 15.33 years
- Chinese goral with an average maximal age of 17.25 years
- Japanese serow with an average maximal age of 18.5 years
- Yellow-bellied glider with an average maximal age of 16 years
- Black wildebeest with an average maximal age of 20 years
- Brown fur seal with an average maximal age of 21 years
- Emperor tamarin with an average maximal age of 20.17 years
- Risso’s dolphin with an average maximal age of 20 years
- Pond bat with an average maximal age of 19.5 years