Rabbit Habitats and Habits

Rabbit habitats include meadows, woods, forests, grasslands, deserts and wetlands. Rabbits live
in groups, and the best known species, the European rabbit, lives in underground burrows, or
rabbit holes. A group of burrows is called a warren.
More than half the world's rabbit population resides in North America. They are also native to
southwestern Europe, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, some islands of Japan, and in parts
of Africa and South America. They are not naturally found in most of Eurasia, where a number
of species of hares are present. Rabbits first entered South America relatively recently, as part of
the Great American Interchange. Much of the continent has just one species of rabbit, the tapeti,
while most of South America's southern cone is without rabbits.
Rabbits are herbivores that feed by grazing on grass, forbs, and leafy weeds. In consequence,
their diet contains large amounts of cellulose, which is hard to digest. Rabbits reingest their own
droppings (rather than chewing the cud as do cows and numerous other herbivores) to digest
their food further and extract sufficient nutrients.
Rabbits graze heavily and rapidly for roughly the first half-hour of a grazing period (usually in
the late afternoon), followed by about half an hour of more selective feeding. In this time, the
rabbit will also excrete many hard fecal pellets, being waste pellets that will not be reingested. If
the environment is relatively non-threatening, the rabbit will remain outdoors for many hours,
grazing at intervals. While out of the burrow, the rabbit will occasionally reingest its soft,
partially digested pellets; this is rarely observed, since the pellets are reingested as they are
produced. Reingestion is most common within the burrow between 8 o'clock in the morning and
5 o'clock in the evening, being carried out intermittently within that period.
Hard pellets are made up of hay-like fragments of plant cuticle and stalk, being the final waste
product after redigestion of soft pellets. These are only released outside the burrow and are not
reingested. Soft pellets are usually produced several hours after grazing, after the hard pellets
have all been excreted. They are made up of micro-organisms and undigested plant cell walls.
The chewed plant material collects in the large cecum, a secondary chamber between the large
and small intestine containing large quantities of symbiotic bacteria that help with the digestion
of cellulose and also produce certain B vitamins. The pellets are about 56% bacteria by dry
weight, largely accounting for the pellets being 24.4% protein on average. The soft feces form
here and contain up to five times the vitamins of hard feces. After being excreted, they are eaten
whole by the rabbit and redigested in a special part of the stomach. The pellets remain intact for
up to six hours in the stomach; the bacteria within continue to digest the plant carbohydrates.
This double-digestion process enables rabbits to use nutrients that they may have missed during
the first passage through the gut, as well as the nutrients formed by the microbial activity and
thus ensures that maximum nutrition is derived from the food they eat This process serves the
same purpose within the rabbit as rumination does in cattle and sheep. Rabbits are incapable
of vomiting.

Characteristics of Rabbits
Rabbits are small, herbivorous mammals with acute sight and hearing. They hide from predators
using these characteristics, along with their speed, and often retreat to underground burrows.
Together with hares, they make up family Leporidae, and with both hares and pikas, order
Lagomorpha (lagomorphs). They are one of the only species of animal simultaneously
considered pets, pests, and livestock animals by people in the same culture.
Although they mostly live in temperate areas located in the middle latitudes of the Americas,
Europe, and Africa, rabbits can live in a variety of environments. They are also found in India,
Sumatra, and Japan. There are 50 species in seven genera, but the Domestic Rabbit has been
selectively bred into so many breeds that it gives the impression that there are many more. These
animals can be white, brown, gray, or brownish-yellow in color, with the black Amami and two
striped black species from Asia being exceptions.
Rabbits are ground-dwellers adapted to gathering food during any time of day (usually midafternoon or night) without getting caught by predators such as dogs, cats, and foxes. Their body
is adapted for predator avoidance, including ears up to 10 cm (4 in) in length, large, sensitive
eyes, and strong hind leg muscles. They mainly eat grass, which is low in nutrients, so they eat
their own feces to redigest it and extract all available nutrients. This strategy contrasts with
ruminants, which chew a cud to extract nutrients instead.
Unlike hares, to which they are closely related, rabbits are social animals, living in small groups
of up to 20 individuals with concrete dominance hierarchies including alpha and beta males.
Unlike other mammals, they are relatively silent creatures, signaling only with loud foot thumps
during times of alarm or aggression. Instead of using sound, they use scent to communicate
information such as group identity, sex, age, social and reproductive status, and territory
ownership. The Amami species in Japan is another exception here, as it uses a range of auditory
calls. Most are members of territorial groups, and will box each other with their front legs during
disputes.
The little animals have the capability to reproduce so quickly and consume so much foliage that
they are sometimes considered pests. The standard example is that of the European rabbit in
Australia, which has displaced many native species. Being marsupials, native Australian
mammals tend to have a slower metabolism than placental mammals, and therefore find it
difficult to compete. Australian rabbit populations have been kept in check with aggressive
culling operations

Label Diagram of Rabbit

Snail Habitats and Habits

With 35,000 different gastropod species classified, there's a lot of variety in snail habitats and
diets. Snails, which are all gastropods, have adapted to life on land, fresh water and salt water.
Most snails are omnivores, while others are herbivores or even carnivores.
Slugs and snails are close relatives, both belonging to the class Gastropoda, along with sea slugs,
nudibranchs, conchs, whelks and limpets. Gastropod literally means stomach foot and is a
direct reference to how the stomach of a snail or slug lies above its large fleshy foot. A terrestrial
snail or slug secretes mucus from a gland in its muscular foot, which helps it move and leaves
behind a distinctive slime trail.

Land Snails
Terrestrial snails live in in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.
They can live in a wide range of temperatures, from cool mountain tops to steamy jungles. Land
snails may live on the ground or in trees, or move between both. The common garden snail
(Helix aspersa) is widespread in Europe. It's a small snail with a shell only about 1 inch long that
spends its days munching on plant leaves and hiding under rocks, logs or overhanging leaves to
avoid predators. They're native to African rainforests, but easily adapt to just about any habitat
where winters aren't extremely harsh. They primarily eat fruits, vegetables and leaves and live
terrestrially as well as arboreally.

Freshwater Snails
Aquatic snail species are abundant on almost every continent. Ponds, streams, lakes and rivers
are often populated with snails. Freshwater snails may subsist on a variety of diets, such as
decaying matter or algae. Certain species of freshwater snails are commonly kept as aquarium
pets, such as the mystery and apple snails (family Ampullariidae). In the wild they live in
subtropical waters of South America. Tylomelania snails are striking freshwater snails, with long,
black, spiraled, textured shells and bright yellowish-orange bodies. They originate from high
altitude lakes in Sulawesi, near Borneo.

Marine Snails
The largest, most colorful and intricately-shaped snails live in the world's oceans, which are
home to 18,000 marine snail species. Saltwater snails live in a variety of habitats, from warm
tropical reefs to inky black ocean depths. Conch shells that supposedly hold the sound of the
ocean are actually home to very large tropical snails. The recently discovered armor-plated snail
(Crysomallon squamiferum) is especially adapted to life near hydrothermal vents, thousands of
feet below the ocean's surface. The world's largest marine snail is the Australian trumpet, Syrinx
aruanus. Its shell can range in size from 4 to 27 inches long.

Omnivorous Snails
Most snails are omnivorous, meaning they eat just about anything that doesn't move. Often
scavengers, omnivorous snails will eat living plants, dead plants and dead animal matter.
Detritivorous marine snails may be benthic grazers, filter feeders or suspension feeders. Some
snails are herbivores, eating almost exclusively plants. Humans consider them pests because they
love to eat crops. A few snail species are even parasitic, such as the marine snail Melanella
araeosomae.

Carnivorous Snails
Snails can be aggressive hunters, like the marine geographic cone snail (Conus geographus). It's
considered one of the most venomous animals in the world and can even kill a human with its
sting. Cone snails deliver their venom via a long tooth propelled by a proboscis they use to stun
fish, their primary prey. The large, terrestrial Powelliphanta snails of New Zealand eat
earthworms that they suck into their mouths like spaghetti. They may even eat slugs -- their
fellow terrestrial gastropod brethren. The rosy wolfsnail (Euglandina rosea), a small arboreal
snail native to Florida, is specially adapted to eat other snails.

Characteristics of snails
General Body Structure
A snails body consists of five main parts the head, the neck, the visceral hump, the tail and the
foot. A slug has the same essential parts, except for the visceral hump or shell. The mantle, which
covers the forward fourth or third of the slugs back, serves as protection for its internal organs,
though it still has a remnant of a shell at its tail end. Snails and slugs have two pairs of tentacles
one pair bearing the eyes and the other serving as smelling organs.

Reproduction
Both slugs and snails are hermaphrodites, meaning that both male and female organs are present
in a single body. Apple and periwinkle snails are two notable exceptions, with distinct male and
female members of the species. Snails and slugs have reproductive organs close to the top of
their bodies to facilitate mating. Fertilization is simultaneous, with two individual snails or slugs
exchanging bundles of sperm. Most species lay their eggs underground, though a few are
ovoviviparous, giving birth to live young.

Feeding Habits
Snails and slugs use a rough tongue called a radula an organ much like a horny file for
rasping away at their food and scraping it into their mouths. Their teeth, which are made of
chitin, also aid in breaking down their food. Their diet includes algae, fungi, dead organic matter
and a variety of field and garden crops. Ripe strawberries and tomatoes are among their favorite
treats. A few species are carnivorous such as the Red Daudebardia snail and the Sicilian

predator snail and feed on earthworms, insect larvae and other snails. These species have long
sickle-shaped radulae.

Habitat
Snails and slugs can live in nearly every habitat on the planet, including salt and freshwater.
They favor moist environments such as moss, tree bark, piles of damp refuse and rotting logs.
Slugs, which aren't protected by a shell, are vulnerable to desiccation during particularly dry
seasons. Some snails protect their soft tissues by closing their operculum, or shell door, as they
retreat. Still other snails survive dry periods by resorting to aestivation, a form of hibernation, in
which they seal themselves in their shells with a layer of dried mucus and remain dormant until
conditions become favorable. Some species can stay inactive for as long as 4 years.

Preferred Habitat

The New Zealand mud snail occupies a wide range of aquatic habitats all throughout U.S.
such as streams, rivers, reservoirs of the West, estuaries in the west coast, and the Great
Lakes in the Midwest.
However, they are absent from the wetlands and small ponds. Although snails can survive
in a wide range of temperatures (0 32 degree centigrade), they largely prefer to reside in
thermally stable stream.
Some of the most preferred habitats include foothills streams, turbulent mountain
streams, geo-thermal driven streams, regulated rivers, flash-flooding creeks, and canyonbound streams.

Label Diagram of Snail