autobiography of a rabbit
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The original European wild rabbits evolved about 4,000 years ago in the red shaded area of the world known as Iberia. In fact the visiting Phoenician merchants referred to part of Iberia as \'I-shephan-im\' which means land of the rabbits. This was translated as \'Hispania\' or as we know it - Spain. The scientific name for rabbits is \'Oryctolagus cuniculus\' which sounds much more complicated than it actually is because it means \'a hare-like digger of underground passages\'.
Life was peaceful for the rabbits until the Romans arrived in Spain during the Second Punic war in the 2nd century B.C. Much to the rabbits dismay the Romans quickly cottoned on to the idea of farming them in a practise known as cuniculture. Initially they kept them in fenced off scrubby areas, but using the first known example of a now standard prison escape tactic, the rabbits kept tunneling out! It wasn\'t long before every rabbit enclosure was as closely guarded as the emperor\'s own palace. Could this slightly unwise use of centurions have contributed in a small way to the downfall of the Roman Empire?
The increasing trade amongst countries by sea and land helped to introduce rabbits to every continent except for Antarctica. Humans were now getting good at growing crops and as more land was cultivated into fields full of food, humans inadvertently provided rabbits with ideal habitats to live in. Combined with their famously fast breeding rate this ensured that they established themselves quickly wherever they went.