Monica Denson, age 13, of Charleston, West Va., for her question:

DO RABBITS HAVE LOTS OF BABIES?

Female rabbits are famous for being prolific mothers.

Cottontail rabbits have gestation periods of between 26 to 30 days while European rabbits will deliver their babies after 28 to 33 days.

A mother will usually have four or five babies at a time, although she may have as few as two or as many as nine.

A mother rabbit seldom feeds her yong for more than a few weeks after birth. The young animals, which are called kits or kittens, !go out on their own early in life and many of the young females start their own families when they are less than six months old.

Where the weather is warm, a mother rabbit will have babies four or five times every year. In cooler places she may have babies two to four times between April and September.