Rabbits by Jerika and Shannon

We're Jerika and Shannon, and we love Jersey Woolies, Mini-lops, and American Polishes. In other words, we're into rabbits! We raise rabbits as pets, and we noticed that the different breeds have different physical characteristics. Since we're always looking for ways to keep our bunnies entertained and happy, we want to know: What kinds of activities are best suited for our various breeds?

What did we do?
We set up various tasks for our rabbits to do, based on behaviors we noticed about them in their cages. We chose four events: 1) hopping for distance; 2) burrowing through a tunnel; 3) nudging a toy; climbing up a ramp. We timed how long it would take each rabbit breed to complete each test.

What did we find out?
The first thing we discovered is that you can't always make a rabbit do what you want it to do! Instead of hopping for distance, they nibbled on the grass. Instead of burrowing through the tunnel, they stopped in the middle and hid. Instead of climbing up the ramp, we had them run down instead. Even though one of the rabbits did out perform the others, we can't say it was because of any special characteristics of that breed.

What can you do?

• Do you have a pet mouse, rat, gerbil, or guinea pig? Design an Olympic event for your pet. Set up a maze using wood blocks, or empty milk cartons. Use food to coax the critter along the course. Time how long it takes for your pet to complete the course. Then change one variable, such as the time of day you do the test, or try with a different animal (gerbil, instead of a guinea pig).
   
  
• Use this rabbit investigation as a science fair project idea for your elementary or middle school science fair! Then tell us about it!
   
  

	SciLinks More on animal behavior. Go to the DFTV Boards, and tell us about your science investigation.