A fuzzball with a furry, round tail and legs that can hop them to the moon (not literally). Can you guess who we are talking about? Yes, rabbits! They are soft, gentle, and excellent pals. Who wouldn’t want one?
What’s so special about bunnies? Well, they have a lot of specialties, such as their long ears, big eyes, and strong hind legs to hop, hop, hop right into your heart. But, the question that’s most asked is, “How high can rabbits jump?”
As we are all curious about the little furry animal, we researched. We found some exciting and funny information we love to share with you. So, let’s not wait and quench our curiosities!
How High Can Bunnies Jump?
Let’s talk about why bunnies don’t walk like us. Well, humans and rabbits have different types of feet. They have powerful, long feet that help them jump high and leap forward to escape predators.
Rabbits use their hind legs to push themselves into the air and then land on their front legs to keep balance. We humans call it hopping. If we had the same feet, we would also be hopping to places!
Have you seen a rabbit run? They can run as fast as 50 miles per hour. Impressive, right! If you think that’s impressive, you must know bunnies can jump as high as 4 feet (1.22 Meters) vertically. The jump height fluctuates between three to four feet for different bunnies. Moreover, even baby bunnies can jump up to 2 feet, so you can tell they are born hoppers.
Have You Seen Rabbits Leaping?
The bunny’s fast speed comes to its advantage while being chased by a predator. Their fast speed and strong hind legs help them leap more than 12 feet forward. As rabbits are small animals, they are easy prey for many animals, so their unique hind legs allow them to escape.
Rabbit Hopping Competition
If you’re wondering, yes, there’s a rabbit hopping competition. Now you can take your fuzzy pet to compete against other furballs. Other names for the competition are “kaninhopping” from Swedish, rabbit agility, and competitive rabbit jumping.
The idea of the competition is similar to the horse show competitions. For example, the rabbit hopping competition has a hurdles sprint, crooked hurdles, long jump, and high jump. Moreover, do you know that only hurdles and tricky leaps were introduced in the competition when it started? Now, its popularity has added the other two competitions to it.
“Kaninhop” began in Sweden in the 1970s and spread to Denmark, then slowly to other parts of Europe. Now, it has spread to different corners of the world due to many rabbit enthusiasts. The competition is divided into weight classes and rabbit breeds so that every bunny has a fair chance of winning.
All About Rabbit Behavior
Rabbits have a lot of cute behaviors and characteristics that make us go, “AWWW!” But they don’t do some of these behaviors just to be adorable; it has different meanings. Moreover, their appearance also gives them survival benefits in the wild. Let’s talk about a few of them!
???? Bunnies have eyes on the sides of the head. Have you ever thought, why? Do you know how it helps? Well, it allows them to see a 360-degree view. They can easily keep a close watch for predators when they are out minding their bunny business.
???? A rabbit’s ear can grow up to ten centimeters. The most amazing thing is that they can rotate it up to 180°-230°. That’s why they have powerful listening skills.
???? Has your rabbit ever kicked you? Well, if they haven’t, you’re lucky. Because a rabbit’s kick is very painful. Their hind legs have strong muscles, which they use in self-defense. Whenever a predator is too close, they use all their strength and swiftly kick their predator to give a warning.
???? Bunnies can sense danger from long distances. They do it by detecting sound waves bouncing off from objects in their surrounding. Then they start thumping their hind legs to warn others before they shelter themselves in a burrow.
???? Rabbits are excellent and fast diggers. Their instinct is to dig to make a burrow or to hide their food. Sometimes, they can also communicate with you by digging on your feet. Don’t worry; it won’t hurt you.
Aside from wild instincts, bunnies have many cute ways of expressing their feelings to you. For example, if they love you, they will lick you; if angry, they will push over things. You’ll learn to communicate better if you can understand your rabbit’s body language.
Funny Rabbit Facts that will Make You Giggle
Get ready to get your giggles on because we will tell you some fun facts about your furry little friend.
Rabbits look cute and innocent but can also throw temper tantrums and have mood swings. They do many more things that make no sense but are adorable to see.
So, we have gone over our research and found some facts that seem fun. Ok, we will stop blabbering now and tell you all the fun facts we found about bunnies.
- According to the Guinness World Records, the longest rabbit jump is 9 feet 9.6 inches (3 meters) by Yabo on June 12, 1999, in Denmark.
- The fastest time of completing five jumps is 4.816 seconds by a rabbit named Penelope on January 18, 2020. The funny thing is there were two other contestants, and one of them decided to just lay on the floor instead of finishing the jumps. Their name is Big Ben.
- A rabbit’s foot is considered good luck in Europe, China, Africa, and North and South America.
- You’ll be surprised to know that a bunny’s teeth never stop growing! We don’t notice it because the teeth gradually wear off when eating or chewing.
- When rabbits are happy and relaxed, they will do a “binky.”
- Rabbits purr like cats! They do it to show happiness and love.
- Can you name the most famous bunny? We bet you can’t. It is “Bugs Bunny,” a famous cartoon character in the “Bugs Bunny” and “Looney Toons” show.
- If you have never seen it, you won’t believe us if we say rabbits make sounds to communicate. Trust us, they do! They will even scream when they are frightened or tensed.
- We often see rabbits holding a carrot everywhere to show it’s their favorite treat. But sorry to burst your bubble, it’s not true! Rabbits actually don’t like carrots that much, and it makes their tummy feel funny.
- Baby bunnies are called kits, a female bunny is called a doe, and a male bunny is called a buck.
- Here’s a fact that isn’t adorable. Rabbits eat their own poop! They also produce a softer type of pellets called cecotropes which they eat. It sounds disgusting to us, but it’s actually beneficial for bunnies to eat their poop.
- Your rabbit friend may be small, but some rabbit breeds like “flemish giant rabbits” can grow up to 2.5 feet long, weighing about 22 pounds. They are almost like medium-sized dogs.
- You can train your rabbit to use a little box like a cat.
- Bunnies groom themselves like cats but don’t produce any hairballs. So, there are no worries about vomiting hairballs.
- When angry, mad, or annoyed, rabbits will push anything off the table. Just like a cat!
As we reached the end of the fact list, we noticed that bunnies may be cats trapped in a rabbit’s body. It’s just a thought because, as we found, bunnies show cat-like behaviors.
What is a Binky?
In the facts listed above, we mentioned binky but didn’t explain it. Oops! So, to clear your confusion here’s what it means by a rabbit doing a “binky.”
When a rabbit jumps high in the air and twists its body, the jump is known as a binky. This behavior shows that your rabbit is content, happy, and healthy. Baby rabbits usually do it in a playful mood, and adults do it in their mating ritual or to show happiness to you. It’s such a simple yet the sweetest behavior!
You may also like: What Does a Rabbit Hole Look Like?
How to Keep Rabbits Out of Garden
Your rabbit is a small escape master. Somehow, they always cheat your eyes and make their way to the yard, garden, or even outside your home. You want to keep your rabbits and your garden safe. What can you do?
Put up a rabbit-proof fence just like Australia did in the 18th century. As you know, rabbits can multiply like crazy. So due to their population getting out of hand, they got considered pests in Australia! The country then built a long fence to stop the rabbits’ infestation, which was causing severe environmental changes and food shortages for the native species.
You don’t need to build such a long fence. Just one around your garden will do the trick. On the other hand, if you want to keep your pet safe from getting hurt, build a playpen for them. You can find playpens for dogs in the mall, which work great for domesticated rabbits. They usually can’t jump higher than 2 feet unless raised in the wild.
What is the Ideal Rabbit Fence Height?
The ideal fence height to keep rabbits away from your beautiful garden is 3 feet. Usually, 2 feet garden fencing will do the trick. But it’s better to settle for 3 feet for adequate safety.
Rabbits are intelligent animals. So, make sure you have no boxes or crates near your fence because they know how to use them to jump over the fence. Moreover, if you plan on building a wall, extending it 6 feet deep into the ground is a good safety measure. As bunnies will try tunneling under if they can’t jump over the fence. Another note is that the wall should be at least three to six feet away from your plants.
Bunnies are super cute. But when you live in the countryside, they create havoc for your plants or crops. Rabbit bites can also cause many diseases such as ringworm, cryptosporidiosis, pasteurellosis, etc., but it’s rare for one to bite.
Some people even bend their fences outwards to make it harder to jump over because wild rabbits can jump higher than your pet bunnies.
In Conclusion
Bunnies are great pets but also the best jumpers. You can easily teach your rabbit to jump higher and get them to participate in different competitions. Most importantly, you can now avoid them escaping and getting into your garden.
We hope we made you laugh and gave you some good information about bunnies through this article. If you want more content like this, roam around our website. You will find many helpful and fun contents.
