Rabbits have some odd habits.
Induction of a new employee into our feral animal office unveiled her surprising lack of an intimate knowledge of the rabbit's coprophagy. Er um, their, er, how should I put it? um, their requirement to eat their own poop. It's like chewing your cud without the need for extra stomachs. I put it this way in an email: A rabbit's number one is wee, Up against some small tree. In a loo, Goes number two. But he has a special ability: Down the mouth goes number three!
Rabbit expert Dr. Brian Cooke gave even more details. Although the rabbit's habit of coprophagy was known in Roman times it has been "discovered" on several occasions throughout history.
In England, in about 1939, a government scientist Dr E. L. Taylor working at the Weybridge laboratories confirmed that rabbits re-ingest soft pellets. However, a skeptic, a vet called Tom Hare (yes that's right!) argued that it was a case of "depraved appetite" and wrote the following verse:
E.L.T. is very funny
In stating that a normal bunny
Enjoying health and merriment
Always eats its excrement
To claim this for the Weybridge rabbits
Does not surprise us since their habits
Must conform with expectations
And Civil Service Regulations.
Brian also pointed out that while I'd said that the "rabbit's number one is wee", in the case of buck rabbits it is seldom applied to trees! Quite often it is sprayed over the doe and kittens to mark them as belonging to "his" social group. Like a tom cat, male rabbits spray pee out behind. Technically this is called "retromingency" euphemistically it is called the "gentle art of pissing backwards".
You learn something everyday.
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