Outside of its native range, it is known as an invasive species, as it has been introduced to countries on all continents with the exception of Antarctica, often with devastating effects on local biodiversity due to a lack of predators.

One was the naturalist Ronald Lockley, who maintained a number of large enclosures for wild rabbit colonies, with observation facilities at Orielton, in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

The other group was the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia, where numerous studies of the social behaviour of wild rabbits were performed.

The root word is the Low Latin warenna, which originally signified a preserve in general, only to be later used to refer specifically to an enclosure set apart for rabbits and hares.

The root word is the Low Latin cunicularia, the feminine form of the adjective cunicularius, which pertains to the rabbit (as in the specific name, cuniculus[8]).

[20] Introduced to the British Isles, Central, Southern and Eastern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Africa, and several Atlantic and Pacific islands.

The oldest known fossils of the currently living European rabbit species, Oryctolagus cuniculus, appeared in the Middle Pleistocene age in southern Spain.

[31] The skull of the European rabbit displays a significant facial tilt of roughly 45° forward relative to the basicranium at rest, which supports their locomotion being mainly jumping or hopping (saltorial) rather than running (cursorial).

[37] The size of the species' home range varies according to habitat, food, shelter, cover from predators, and breeding sites, though it is generally small, encompassing about 4 ha (9.9 acres).

[38] Except during times of low rabbit density and abundance of high-quality food, male ranges tend to be larger than those held by females.

[39] The European rabbit is a gregarious animal, which lives in stable social groups centred around females and sharing access to one or more burrow systems.

[43] Though male European rabbits may sometimes be amicable with one another, fierce fights can erupt among bucks during the breeding season,[44] which typically starts in autumn and continues through to spring.

[45] A succession of 4 to 5 litters (usually three to seven kittens each,[46] on average five) are produced annually,[38] but in overpopulated areas, pregnant does may lose all their embryos through intrauterine resorption.

[46] Shortly before giving birth, the doe constructs a separate burrow known as a "stop" or "stab", generally in an open field away from the main warren.

[56] The European rabbit's ideal habitat consists of short grasslands with secure refuge (such as burrows, boulders, hedgerows, scrub, and woodland) near feeding areas.

[57] The European rabbit's grazing habits tend to promote their ideal open grassland habitat via the dispersion of seeds and trimming of vegetation.

[40] The European rabbit eats a wide variety of herbage, especially grasses, favouring the young, succulent leaves and shoots of the most nutritious species, particularly fescues.

Blackberries are also eaten, and captive-bred European rabbits have been fed on fodder consisting of furze and acorns, which can lead to considerable weight gain.

The most lethal strain has a five-day incubation period, after which the eyelids swell, with the inflammation quickly spreading to the base of the ears, the forehead, and nose.

[76][77] The gene IGKC1, responsible for the principal immunoglobulin light chain,[78] shows high amino acid divergence between domesticated types and ferals derived from them.

[79] Humans' relationship with the European rabbit was first recorded by the Phoenicians prior to 1000 BC, when they termed the Iberian Peninsula i-Shaphan-ím (literally, the land of the hyraxes).

[86] Major infestations can have massive impacts on agriculture and biodiversity, and have been difficult to control through physical and biological means, such as that in Australia,[87][88] but at least one attempt at extirpation, on the island of Isola delle Femmine, has been successful.

Rabbits were spread further as colonial powers developed across Europe, such as in the case of the Azores and Canary Islands, which were important strategic locations for Spanish and Portuguese ships on their way to the Americas.

[105] Myxomatosis entered Britain from France in 1953, and reached Ireland by 1954,[74] prompting the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to set up "mercy squads" meant to euthanize myxomatous rabbits.

[106] Major myxomatosis outbreaks still occur in Britain, peaking twice annually: in spring and especially in late summer or autumn, though immunity has reduced the mortality rate from 99% to 5–33%.

Pip Mountjoy, Shifting Sands project manager at Natural England, has stated: They (rabbits) are actually an endangered species in their native region on the Iberian peninsula.

[93] Their descendants multiplied and spread throughout the country and caused severe agricultural damage and widespread ecological changes that contributed to the decline of native Austrlian species such as the greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) and the southern pig-footed bandicoot (Chaeropus ecaudatus).

Whether or not their escape into the wild was intentional is unknown, but warnings over the dangers of feral rabbits were raised during the early 20th century, and the species had propagated dramatically by the late 1920s in central Chile, Tierra del Fuego, and the Juan Fernández Islands.

In 2005, the Portuguese Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests classified O. cuniculus in Portugal as "near threatened",[135] while in 2006, Spanish authorities (SECEM) reclassified it in Spain as "vulnerable".

[136] In 2018, the International Union for Conservation of Nature reclassified O. cuniculus in Spain, Portugal, and France as "endangered", due to the extent of recent declines.