In October this year, a few days ago, on the slopes of Sanjiangyuan National Park at an altitude of more than 4,400 meters, nature monitors of the management bureau captured footage of the rabbit family in the wild, including a rabbit mother and three baby rabbits frolicking on the hillside, which was the first time in China to film the natural breeding behavior of rabbits in the wild.
Sanjiangyuan National Park covers an area of about 190,700 square kilometers, which is not only the birthplace of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, and the Lancang River, known as the Chinese Water Tower, but also inaccessible to people, but also a paradise for wildlife, the park has snow leopards, argal sheep, white-lipped deer, Tibetan foxes, sand foxes, wolves, stone martens, wild yaks, Tibetan antelopes, brown bears, golden eagles, Tibetan snow chickens, ruddy ducks and other wild animals, and the area where rabbits were found this time is the core area of the reserve, and humans rarely step in, and there are good conditions for the breeding of rabbits.
Many people don't know much about this animal, but what kind of animal is the rabbit? Why is it rarely seen in the zoo, and why people jokingly call it "four seconds of foxes", with these questions, I will give you a detailed introduction.
Not a rabbit, not a fox, a rabbit is a solid feline.
What kind of animal is a rabbit? Although there is "rabbit" and "fox" in the name, it is neither a rabbit nor a rabbit, but a veritable feline, which is one of the oldest cats on the earth, breeding on the earth for more than 15 million years, mainly living in the cold alpine steppe.
It can survive at high altitudes above 4,000 meters above sea level, has thick and fluffy fur, has a strong ability to withstand the cold, and can rest on the snow without feeling the cold at all. The rabbit has short legs, short and wide ears, round and blunt ear tips, a large and fluffy tail, and the most distinctive thing is its face, which looks fat, in fact, because the fur is very thick. The pattern of the body is very similar to the local natural environment and hides itself well.
The scarcity has become a national treasure, good at catching rats and rabbits, becoming a grassland guardian, and reproducing offspring from local materials.
Today's rabbit bamboo is relatively rare, it is estimated that there are more than 2,000 rabbits living in the wild, about half of the world's rabbits live in the mainland, the rabbit fox has been a national second-class protected animal, but also a rare animal in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
In the last century, rabbits were once hunted in large quantities for their heavy fur, according to relevant records, in the 50s of the last century, 10,000 rabbit skins could be produced a year, and in the 70s, about 1,000 rabbit skins were produced per year. At the same time, the habitat of rabbit foxes was reduced due to desertification in grasslands, and the number of rabbits once declined sharply.
Nowadays, with the increase of natural environmental protection, under the consensus that lucid waters and lush mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains, the natural environment in many areas has been greatly improved, and the rabbit has gradually returned to its hometown where it once bred, and the number has gradually begun to recover.
The rabbit is also a true guardian of the steppe, and its main diet is rodents such as rats and rabbits, and occasionally birds or insects. Rabbit bamboo feet light, can quietly approach the prey, plus their own fur and the surrounding natural environment integrated, sometimes when approaching the prey, the prey is difficult to find, so the hunting efficiency of the rabbit is very high, to control the number of rodents on the grassland is of great help.
The territory of an adult rabbit is about fifty or sixty square kilometers, and in this area, each rabbit has many hiding places, and these hiding places are locally sourced, and larger marmots are generally selected as burrows for breeding offspring.
Shy temperament, low desire, short mating time, jokingly called Fox Sixiao.
The rabbit is a very shy animal, with an indifferent personality, secretive whereabouts, likes to be alone, in the non-breeding period, two rabbits will actively avoid after meeting to avoid conflicts. The reproductive behavior of rabbits is also very fast, and the female rabbit is only in heat for a short day, and the mating time between the two is only about four seconds, so it is also jokingly called Sun Sixiao.
After mating, the male rabbit is completed, and it goes out to wander again, leaving the female rabbit to breed alone, of course, not that the male rabbit is irresponsible, but that the female rabbit is too independent and does not need the help of the male. The gestation period of rabbits is about 70 days, and one litter gives birth to 3 to 5 pups.
With a low immune system and difficult to farm, only one zoo in the country has been successful for a short time.
Rabbits are so cute, why are they rarely seen in domestic zoos? The answer is that rabbits are too difficult to breed. First of all, rabbits like to live in cold areas at higher altitudes, cold areas in high mountains, and there is less virus, so the immune system of rabbits is also relatively weak, and the survival rate of cubs in the wild is less than 50%, and it is even more difficult to survive in the interior. This phenomenon is reflected in many highland animals, such as the once very hot Tibetan mastiff, which will feel uncomfortable at low altitudes.
The immunity of rabbits is almost the worst among felines, in the zoo environment, cats such as tigers and leopards can be fed live food, but rabbits cannot accept such food, once there is Toxoplasma in the food, it will cause the death of rabbits. Therefore, when feeding rabbits in zoos, the choice of food is very strict.
However, even with caution, the breeding of rabbits is difficult, at present, only Xining Zoo has been briefly successful in China, but unfortunately a few days ago, Xining Zoo's net red rabbit - Fox Sixiao, unfortunately stuck to the bone and suffocated to death while eating, which is the only male rabbit in captivity in the world.
There are many natural predators, in addition to wolves and eagles, stray dogs have also become a new threat
Although the rabbit fox surviving in the wild is a mouse catcher, its own strength is not strong, although it looks large and round, but in fact, it is due to the visual illusion brought by the fluffy fur, the weight of the rabbit is only about 3 pounds, and it is also the prey of golden eagles, wolves, leopards, etc.
In addition to these natural enemies, there is now another natural enemy, that is, stray dogs, stray dogs themselves have poor hunting ability, but they are good at robbing other hunters of food, sometimes even snow leopard food dare to rob these stray dogs The appearance of these stray dogs is not good news for rabbits and offspring, and it will become a new threat to its reproduction.