Friends with the "cat around" calendar may have noticed that tomorrow, the only day off in between two consecutive six days of work under the mediation of all evils, April 23, is Rabbit Day (also World Book Day).
The rabbit is now at the top of the cat world, and countless people are addicted to its furry and round body and rich and exaggerated expression. So before Rabbit Day, let's nag Rabbit again.
When doing individual identification for the rabbits in the Hexi Corridor, the big cats throw two pictures of the rabbits in the group from time to time: are these two the same one?
I stared at them for tens of seconds and then pressed the give up button, and this was just the beginning, and the big cat was already planning to catch a few more people to take over the blind task.
The big cat painstakingly made a rabbit individual identification table
After seeing more of the rabbit's face, I can't help but wonder: How can the rabbit and the more you look at it, the more you feel that there is no cat-like?
Especially its ears- other cat ears are grown on both sides of the top of the head, but the rabbit's ears are attached to the sides of the head, and with a very flat brain gate, it seems that its head is very bald.
Its Latin name Otocolobus manul means "ugly ears", which is well deserved, but the advantage of looking like this is that it will not be confused with other species.
The subtle expressions captured by the infrared camera
Strange name
Manul comes from the Mongolian language meaning "little bobcat/wildcat". It has a nice nickname "agate", which is probably a transliteration of manul.
The English name of the rabbit is Pallas's cat, from peter Simon Pallas, a German naturalist who first introduced it to the world in 1776.
Its Chinese name "Rabbit" is very confusing, obviously a cat creature, and "rabbit", "fox" what is the relationship? As for why it got its name "Rabbit Fox", there are many opinions.
Like a rabbit?
In an article titled "Examination of the Rationale for "Rabbit Fox" (Wang Jie, 2018), several accounts of the origin of "Rabbit Fox" are recorded:
1. "Rabbit" is a transliteration of "tursun" in the Turkic language, meaning "to stand still", and legend has it that ancient herders would blurt out "tursun" when they found rabbit. But this claim is not verifiable in the main languages of the Turkic languages, and if the herders want to hunt rabbits, shouting this way will obviously scare it away. The author argues that this claim is ill-founded.
2. In Mongolian, the lynx is called "lynx", the rabbit is shaped like a lynx, and preys on the pika, so the lynx group is dismantled (the predator is one of the angles of animal naming, such as the osprey).
3. In some records of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, there is a use case of "rabbit fox", and "rabbit fox" is likely to be deleted from "rabbit fox". The "rabbit" does not refer to the prey, but is used for shape, "rabbit" is short and fat, "rabbit fox" is based on "rabbit-like fat and small lynx." In the Uyghur language, "rabbit" means "rabbit-shaped lynx."
Lynx: Where is it like me???
The authors argue that the last argument is more reliable: people often compare the body size of unfamiliar cats to the more familiar animal body type.
As for which one the truth is, there is no way to confirm it, and I can only say that different claims have their own truths.
Ugly ears
The ugly ears of the rabbit are marked by its namer, but this does not prevent it from being popular all over the country.
Its ears growing like this is also the result of adapting to the environment. Rabbits live in places with little shade, and their flat brain gates and lower ears allow them to maintain better concealment whether they are stationary or moving.
And its ears are ugly but very good – each hearing bubble is 1.22 cubic centimeters in size, which is 1/3 larger than other cats of the same size (except for sand cats that listen to bubbles up to 1.91 cubic centimeters).
Unlike sand cats, rabbits live in areas with cold climates, and if their ears grow as high-profile as sand cats, they will be frozen.
Rabbit Evil Charm smiled: Rounded up I can have no ears ©joke kok
A master of disguise
Rabbits inhabit open, rocky areas with grey fur with light black streaks that blend well with the surrounding bare rocks.
Their coat color also changes with the seasons, and the winter coat is long and thick, lighter in color, and white at the end, looking like it is covered with a layer of frost and snow. In the summer, its coat color becomes darker, gray-brown or even ochre, and the markings are more pronounced. This is all in sync with seasonal variations in the color of the environment where they live.
In different distribution areas, due to differences in the environment, the fur of rabbits also shows different colors from gray to dark yellow.
Eye Question: Where is the Rabbit? ©S. Ross
The longest and densest hairs
The rabbit gives the impression of being often chubby, but in fact it is not fat, the rabbit is 46 to 65 cm long, and the weight is only 2.3 to 4.5 kg, which is similar to the smaller domestic cat, it is just too long hair.
Rabbits have the longest, softest, densest hairs of a feline, with as many as 9,000 hairs per square centimeter of skin (it is said that the average human hair density is 200-300 hairs per square centimeter, which I may not be able to do
）。 This is simply a natural fluffy and soft high-quality cotton coat, and there is no need to be afraid of the extreme cold weather of the plateau.
The hairs on its belly and tail are particularly long, which allows them to maintain body temperature effectively when crawling in the snow to avoid or advance.
The beard is thick and not afraid of cold Image source: Altai Republic ©Denis Malikov via sibnet.ru
It's fierce and fierce
Rabbits are probably the least good at running of all cats. I once saw a video of a Russian scientist easily catching up with a four-legged rabbit with two legs.
Probably because most of the time it can't win, when the rabbit finds a threat, it will flatten its body against the ground, and pretend to be a stone to avoid danger, looking intimidating.
Can't see my .jpg
But in fact, the rabbit, like its fierce expression at all times, is not a friendly cat, but a wild beast.
Its main diet is the pika (which accounts for more than 50% of the food composition) and other small rodents and small birds. They also prey on hares, hedgehogs and juvenile marmots, challenge larger birds and even birds of prey, and occasionally eat lizards and invertebrates.
Encounter the predatory bird of prey rabbit fury and rage shoot © the bird's Yi Nuo
They are decisive carnivores and do not show weakness when offended.
The old article of the big cat (poke: 818 this kind of cute cat) mentions such a story: several bird friends who drove to Inner Mongolia accidentally broke into the territory of a rabbit, the rabbit (probably the mother who was taking the cub) first went into the bottom of the car and crashed, when everyone opened the car door to check, this angry little beast actually rushed into the car to bite people, and finally the bird friend had to wrap it in clothes and throw it out, and then drove away.
Does this look like a good lord? Image source: ourplnt.com
The estrus period is short
The estrus period of the female rabbit is only 26 to 42 hours, such a short time, you can imagine how difficult it is for the rabbit to reproduce successfully.
During the breeding season, male rabbits spend a lot of energy courting and mating, and it has been recorded that a male rabbit rabbit loses 22% of its weight during the 14-day breeding period.
The gestation period of females is generally 66-75 days, and the average number of litters per litter is 3-6. The number of births is not low, but the mortality rate of rabbit cubs is high, with an average mortality rate of 68% before living independently.
Rabbit cubs will begin to live independently at 4 to 5 months of age, but when they grow up, they are also constantly facing the life dangers of predators (large birds of prey, domestic dogs, wolves, humans) and competitors (badgers, red foxes).
Studies of the Mongolian rabbit population show that even in individual rabbits who have lived for the first year, the chance of survival to the age of 3 is only 50%.
Rabbit with cubs Image source: bnhc.org.uk
Round pupils
In the feline, the rabbit can rely not only on its unique face, but also on its eyes.
Friends who have cats at home may notice that the cat's pupils will squint into a vertical slit when the light is stronger. After the pupils of the rabbit are constricted, it becomes a small point, which looks particularly funny.
Of all cats, less than 30% have round pupils, including tigers, leopards, snow leopards, cheetahs, golden cats... And, rabbits...
Is it good that the rabbits here are almost like chaos? Everyone is the leader of the cats, and the rabbits are too weak compared to them.
How can the rabbit Fox He De have the same pupils as the Leopard King?
Studies have shown that active pursuit predators who are active during the day usually have rounded pupils. This is inconsistent with the habits of most cats.
Although the rabbit is also active during the day, its foraging activities are mainly concentrated in the early morning and dusk and at night.
Rabbit hunting usually uses ambush methods, but it also actively pursues prey, and the round pupil may be better adapted to different hunting methods to obtain a higher catch rate.
The rabbit at night is a domineering hunter in the desert
Lack of research
The rabbit can go out of the circle and become popular not only because of its "cute" and "fierce" appearance, it has too many peculiarities, and the small body hides a lot of energy. After all, life is not easy today, and everyone needs to suck on magical animals to heal them.
Good sucking is good sucking, but then I still want to repeat some serious questions: it is good that the rabbits that become Internet celebrities are recognized and concerned by more and more people, but this does not mean that their future is bright, and the rabbits living in the wild are still facing a severe test (why protect the rabbits, but poke: what?!). Rabbits are not in danger? No need to protect? ）。
More than 50% of the world's rabbits are distributed in western and northern China, but there is little ecological research on them.
In the desert of northwest China, two small rabbits play at the mouth of the cave
One of the targets of the Cat Alliance's Northwest Kitten Project, which is supported by monthly donors, is rabbits.
So far, the field work of the Cat Alliance in Zhangye, Gansu Province, has been completed three times, and we have been very lucky to photograph the rabbits in the desert and see their worrying future in the arid and barren land.
In places where protection work has not yet arrived, their long, soft fur may still be coveted by poachers; rabbits are one of the serious victims of rat extermination in order to obtain more grass; wind power facilities are uprooted in close proximity to their habitat...
Maybe they can gradually adapt to wind farms, but who knows?
We don't know the current status of the rabbit population there and the extent of the threat they face.
Under the strict control of the epidemic, the implementation of field work has become difficult, and the protection is a race against time, and we are eager to know more about the secrets of the life of the rabbits in the Hexi Corridor, hoping to see them again in May.
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---- about rabbits, you can also read----
There is a rabbit that watches humans build windmills every day
We saw a fat rabbit that looked like a chicken leg!
Seeing this lump of cat feces, I feel like my ass hurts...
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