Jennifer Juckett, age 8, of Allentown, Pa., for her question:
WHY DOES A RABBIT HAVE LONG EARS?
Rabbits and bares belong to the same order of the animal kingdom, but they are two separate animals. Most rabbits are smaller than bares and have shorter ears. At birth, a rabbit is blind and has no fur while a bare can see and has a fine coat of fur. In addition, the bones in a rabbit's skull have a different size and shape from those in hare's skull.
A rabbit is a long eared, furry animal that does not run or walk as other four legged animals do. A rabbit moves by hopping on its hind legs, which are much longer and stronger than its front legs.
A rabbit balances on its front legs much as you would balance on your hands when you play leapfrog. When being chased by an enemy, a rabbit can hop as fast as 18 miles an hour.
A rabbit has an excellent sense of hearing. He can move his long ears together or one at a time, with each pointing to a different direction. The ears are long so that they can pick up sounds easily. A rabbit's ears can catch even faint sounds in opposite directions.
A rabbit also has a keen sense of smell. He seems to be twitching his nose almost all of the time. This is being done as a method to alert him to possible danger.
Without keen ears and nose, backed by speedy hops, a rabbit would have had an even more difficult time surviving than he does now. An adult wild rabbit rarely lives more than a year because he has so little protection against his enemies. Pet rabbits, however, may live as long as five years.
Rabbits were once classified as rodents. Like beavers, mice and other rodents, rabbits have chisel like front teeth for gnawing. But unlike rodents, rabbits have a pair of small teeth behind the upper front teeth.
Cottontails are the main wild rabbits you'll find in Canada, the United States and Mexico. There are several kinds including the desert cottontail, the mountain cottontail and the New England cottontail.
The eastern cottontail, which is sometimes called the Florida cottontail, is another common species. This rabbit can be found in southeastern Canada, in the United States as far west as the Rocky Mountains, and in eastern Mexico.
A female cottontail rabbit carries her young inside her body for 26 to 30 days before they are born. She usually has four or five young, which are called kits or kittens, although she may have as few as two or as many as nine.
About two weeks after birth, the kits leave the nest. Some female cottontails start their own families when less than six months old.