Rabbit rabbit rabbit! (59)

On Sunday, which happened to be New Year's Day, a friend on FB posted, "Rabbit rabbit rabbit. I woke up to a 'mistake fare' in my inbox and just bought me and my sister RT flights to Senegal this Spring." My first thought was, lucky women! My second was, what does this "rabbit rabbit rabbit" mean? So you know I looked it up.

It seems it is a superstition in Britain and the U.S. (especially northern New England) "wherein a person says or repeats the words rabbit, rabbits, and/or white rabbits aloud upon waking on the first day of a month, to ensure good luck for the rest of it." It sure worked for my friend! I've never woken up to a "mistake fare" to anywhere in my inbox.  Though it's possible I don't subscribe to the proper travel sites . . . Wikipedia has a discussion of the superstition, and of variants. Think, too, of the belief in some cultures in the efficacy of a rabbit's foot (such as the Victorian one pictured here) as a good-luck amulet. Rabbits and luck go together (unless you happen to be a rabbit missing its foot . . . ).

What made me think of this today is that, on my afternoon walk around our local Frog Pond, trying to get in my 10,000 steps (I succeeded), I saw not one but three cottontail bunnies scurrying out of the path into the surrounding shrubbery. Rabbit rabbit rabbit! And that got me wondering how many rabbit species there are. Well, if the PBS show Nature is any expert, the answer is: 29 species, in 10 genera, found on all continents but Antarctica. Of those, there are 17 species of Sylvilagus (my cottontails) in North and South America. Rabbits are members of the order Lagomorpha, along with hares and pikas. (I wrote about jackrabbits, which are actually hares, several years ago, in the context of my "totem animal.")

When it comes to domesticated rabbits, though, the numbers skyrocket. According to Wikipedia, as of 2017 there were a whopping 305 breeds of domesticated rabbit in 70 countries around the world. The American Rabbit Breeders Association, more conservatively, recognizes only 49 of these breeds, with such names as American Fuzzy Lop, Blanc de Hoto, Checkered Giant, and Lionhead. The (albino) angora bunny shown here (also one of the 49) was developed in Turkey. I am unable to determine whether these are all mainly of the same genus, or if they represent different genera, though I know the answer's got to be in Google somewhere. . . .

According to Nature's Rabbit Fact Sheet, nearly half of the world's wild rabbit species are in danger of extinction. A number are listed by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) as endangered, including the Amami rabbit (Pentalagus furnessi), a "living fossil" found in Japan, and the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), while the Riverine rabbit of South Africa (Bunolagus monticularis), shown here, is considered critically endangered, its habitat being wiped out by agriculture. 

Little did I know that today's entry would be sending me down a rabbit hole. I expect there's lots more fascinating stuff about rabbits I could be relating, but I think I'll leave it at that. Except, making a note for February 1: to say "Rabbit rabbit rabbit!" upon waking. We can all use a shot at good luck.