Despite the numbers present, the rabbit is not native to the western isles.The rabbit was introduced to Britain by the Normans in the 12th Century were they were kept for fur and meat. They are more abundant in the west, by the 19th Century they had spread to the highlands.
The rabbit is a social species, living in small groups in a cluster of burrows. The dominant males rule the home and father most of the young in their social group. It is the females that fight fiercely to establish dominance amongst themsleves and get access to the best breeding sites. Subordinate females tend to have a shorter breeding season and are forced to make their nests away from themain burrow system where they are more susceptible to predators. Each social group sets up a territory by running up and down the boundaries in full view of their neighbours to establish who lives where. Territory is marked by scent from the paws and is done by creating shallow scrapes in the soil.
They start to breed as early as january and may continue until August or later. Females produce up to seven young, every five weeks or so throughout the summer. A single female may produce 20-30 offspring in a year - these babies are then able to breed at four months old!. After a pregnancy of 30 days the young are born in a nest (known as a stop) lined with dry grass and fur stripped from the females underparts. The mother will spend most of her time with the young, only leaving the nest at night to feed. When she does leave, she seals the entrance of the stop to reduce the risk of predation - she returns only once each night to feed them. The young are pinkand blind and covered in a faint, wispy fur. Their eyes open at 10 days and they begin to appear at the entrance at 3 weeks of age. They become indepedant of their mothers milk at 25 days, and may disperse. During normal activity rabbits rarely go more than 100 metres from their burrow, but when they first become independant young males may disperse up to 4km from where they were born. Females disperse less frequently and usually over smaller distances.
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