The term rabbit is typically used for all Leporidae species excluding the genus Lepus. Members of that genus are instead known as hares or jackrabbits.

Lepus species are typically precocial, which means young are born relatively mature and mobile with hair and good vision, while rabbit species are altricial, which means young are born hairless and blind, and requiring closer care.

Hares live a relatively solitary life in a simple nest above the ground, while most rabbits live in social groups in burrows or warrens.

Hares are generally larger than rabbits, with ears that are more elongated, and with hind legs that are larger and longer. Descendants of the European rabbit are commonly bred as livestock and kept as pets, whereas no hares have been domesticated.

The breed called the Belgian hare is actually a domestic rabbit which has been selectively bred to resemble a hare.

A male rabbit is called a buck; a female is called a doe. An older term for an adult rabbit used until the 18th century is coney (derived ultimately from the Latin cuniculus), while rabbit once referred only to the young animals.[2] Another term for a young rabbit is bunny, though this term is often applied informally (particularly by children) to rabbits generally, especially domestic ones. More recently, the term kit or kitten has been used to refer to a young rabbit.

A group of rabbits is known as a colony or nest (or, occasionally, a warren, though this more commonly refers to where the rabbits live).[3] A group of baby rabbits produced from a single mating is referred to as a litter[4] and a group of domestic rabbits living together is sometimes called a herd.[5]

The word rabbit itself derives from the Middle English rabet, a borrowing from the Walloon robète, which was a diminutive of the French or Middle Dutch robbe.[6]

Rabbits, hares and pikas were formerly classified in the order Rodentia until 1912, when they were moved into a new order, Lagomorpha.

There are 102 extant species of lagomorph, including 37 species of pika, 33 species of rabbits, and 32 species of hare.

Bushman rabbit

Bristly rabbit, South Asia

Black-tailed Jackrabbit

Sumatran striped rabbit

Annamite stripped rabbit

Central African rabbit

Natal red rock hare

Jameson′s red rock hare

Smith′ red rock hare

Hewitt′s red rock hare

     Transcontinental Volcanic Mountains and

     Southern Sierra Madre regions of Mexico

Leporidae is the family of rabbits and hares, containing over 60 species of extant mammals in all. The Latin word Leporidae means those that resemble lepus which is Latin for hare.

The Leporidae (hares and rabbits), together with the Ochotonidae (pikas), constitute the mammalian order Lagomorpha.

Leporidae differ from Ochotonidae (pikas) in that the Lepus have short, furry tails, elongated ears and long hind legs.

Genus: Sylviagus, Species: nuttallii, LC

This species is found throughout the intermountaijn area of North America, ranging from just about the Canada-US border south to Arizona and New Mexico from the foothills and east slopes of the Rocky Mountains and westward to the eastern slopes of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Order: Lagomorpha, Family: Leporidae

Genus: Brachylagus, Species: idahoensis

The range of the pygmy rabbit includes most of the Great Basin and some of the adjacent intermountain areas of western North America. Pygmy rabbits are found in southwestern Montana from the extreme southwest corner near the Idaho border north to Dillon and Bannack in Beaverhead County. Distribution continues west to southern Idaho and southern Oregon and south to northern Utah, northern Nevada, and eastern California. Isolated populations occur in east-central Washington and Wyoming.

Pygmy rabbits are normally found in areas on deep soils with tall, dense sagebrush which they use for shelter and food. Individual sagebrush plants in areas inhabited by pygmy rabbits are often 6 feet or more in height. Extensive, well-used runways interlace the sage thickets and provide travel and escape routes. Dense stands of big sagebrush along streams, roads, and fence rows provide dispersal corridors for pygmy rabbits.

Burrows are usually located on slopes at the base of sagebrush plants, and face north to east. Tunnels widen below the surface, forming chambers, and extend to a maximum depth of about 3.3 feet. Burrows typically have 4 or 5 entrances but may have as few as 2 or as many as 10. In Oregon, pygmy rabbits inhabited areas where soils were significantly deeper and looser than soils at adjacent sites. Site selection was probably related to ease of excavation of burrows. In areas where soil is shallow pygmy rabbits live in holes among volcanic rocks, in stone walls, around abandoned buildings, and in burrows made by badgers or marmots.

The pygmy rabbit is a native to the United States and the only native rabbit species in North America to dig its own burrow. The pygmy rabbit differs significantly from species within either the Lepus (hare) or Sylvilagus (cottontail) genera and is generally considered to be within the monotypic genus Brachylagus. One isolated population, the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit, is listed as an endangered species in the US even though the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as lower risk.

The pygmy rabbit is the world's smallest leporid with adults weighing between 0.8 to 1.1 pound (375 and 500 grams), and having a body length between 9.3 and 11.6 inches (23.5 and 29.5 centimeters) with females being slightly larger than males. The pygmy rabbit is distinguishable from other leporids by its small size, short ears, gray color, small hind legs, and lack of white fuzzy fur.

Order: Lagomorpha, Family: Leporidae

Genus: Lepus, Species: californicus

The black-tailed jackrabbit, also known as the American desert hare, is a common hare of the western United States and Mexico, where it is found at elevations from sea level up to 10,000 feet. Reaching a length around 2 feet, and a weight from 3 to 6 pounds, the black-tailed jackrabbit is one of the largest North American hares.

Their breeding depends on the location; it typically peaks in spring, but may continue all year round in warmer climates. Young are born fully furred with eyes open; they are well camouflaged and are mobile within minutes of birth, thus females do not protect or even stay with the young except during nursing. The average litter size is around four, but may be as low as two and as high as seven in warm regions.

Black-tailed jackrabbits occupy mixed shrub-grassland terrains. The black-tailed jackrabbit does not migrate or hibernate during winter and uses the same habitat of about a mile or less year-round.

The black-tailed jackrabbit can occupy a wide range of habitats as long as diversity in plant species exists. It requires mixed grasses, forbs (herbaceous flowering plant that are not a grasses), and shrubs for food. They use shrubs or small trees for cover. It prefers moderately open areas without dense understory growth and is seldom found in closed-canopy habitats.

The hares host many ectoparasites including fleas, ticks, lice, mites and for this reason, hunters often avoid collecting them.

The black-tailed jackrabbit is the most widely distributed jackrabbit in North America. Native black-tailed jackrabbit populations occur from central Washington east to Missouri and south to Baja California Sur and Zacatecas. Black-tailed jackrabbit distribution is currently expanding eastward in the Great Plains at the expense of white-tailed jackrabbit. The black-tailed jackrabbit has been successfully introduced in southern Florida and along the coastline in Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia

There are at least six subspecies and as many as seventeen, all of which occur entirely or partially in the United States