A video and a question

[MaryAnne]

First, an adorable, albeit long (6min) video, but very entertaining for bun lovers. Outdoor bun falls in love with indoor bun.

Then the question. There's a discussion in the comments about whether or not the buns could mate. Some say yes, some say no. What are your thoughts?

https://www.thedodo.com/wild-rabbit-loves-house-bunny-1538761674.html

Thanks!
MA
:rabbithop

 

[Blue eyes]

Domestic rabbits in the US are genetically incapable of successfully breeding with our wild rabbits (cottontails).
http://suite101.com/article/domestic-vs-wild-rabbits-a126812

 

[Azerane]

It depends what species of rabbit the wild rabbit is. It looks like a species of cottontail, so while they could certainly mate, (bunnies are bunnies and hormones are hormones) they can't actually produce any babies

 

[Blue eyes]

Just to clarify... all wild rabbits in the US are from the genus Sylvilagus, which means that no wild rabbit in the US can *successfully* breed with our domestic rabbits. (As Azarene pointed out, they can "mate" but can't produce offspring.)

Domestic rabbits are descended from the European rabbits which are from the genus Oryctolagus. Two different genus makes it impossible to have babies together.

 

[JBun]

Edited: Blue eyes and Azerane pretty much covered it.

http://rabbit.org/can-domestic-rabbits-survive-outdoors/

 

[Preitler]

Actually, there are some small populations of european rabbits in the US, but 99% or so will be some other species. Here it is different - the wild rabbits are the same thing as the domestics, and I once had a wild buck squeeze through the fence (they are smaller, 3-4lbs max) and knock up one of my does, twice his size. The litter was somewhat different in behavior, smaller, but not that much different.

 

[flemishwhite]

Domestic rabbits in the US are genetically incapable of successfully breeding with our wild rabbits (cottontails).

Amazing. I didn't know that European rabbits (domestic) and US wild rabbits could not interbreed. I did know that Europ:runningrabbit:ean rabbits would borrow, while US rabbits would not. For the limited time I put my domestic Bunny in the back yard, she dug a very impressive bunny hole, when she stayed in the bunny hole almost 24 hours a day, I knew she was afraid of being outside, and I brought her inside the house where she stayed until dying of old age 11 years later.

I'm sure that some of the "wild" rabbits in the US must be European rabbits, that have been set loose. All the "wild" rabbits in Australia are European rabbits that were initially introduced for English horse and hound hunting. The rabbits there became a plague due to insufficient numbers of preditors.