7 amazing facts about rabbits

Rabbits are famous for their long, sharp teeth, but the length can actually get out of hand. Unlike humans, whose teeth do not change or grow once they've pushed through the gums, rabbits have teeth that are always growing. In the wild, rabbits have to eat and chew through lots of tough, fibrous material like bark and vegetation, so their teeth continually grow to compensate for the wear. However, if they don't get enough opportunity to chew, their teeth can become overgrown and tusk-like — which is why owners of pet bunnies must ensure their animals have lots of chewables at all times.

Let's put this in context: a resting human heart rate is usually 60-90 beats per minute, with some doctors saying that number should be 76 or lower. In other words, rabbits' hearts beat twice as fast as ours, and that's just resting. If a rabbit is under stress or exercising, its heart can beat over 300 times per minute — that's five beats per second. I guess that explains how the Easter bunny has enough energy to deliver all those eggs.

This information may induce nightmares in human mothers, but female hares can actually become pregnant with a second litter of offspring before they've given birth to their first. The phenomenon is called superfetation, and it can happen if the hare mates again late in her first pregnancy. Becoming pregnant a second time, the hare's second set of embryos sits in the oviduct while the first set has claim to the uterus. Kind of like waiting for someone to be done with the shower so you can use it.

Rabbits were built to run — they have powerful hind legs and strong muscles that propel them at speeds comparable to a car. Jackrabbits have been clocked at up to 45 miles per hour — that's as fast as a greyhound can run, and much faster than a human can. In fact, for a rabbit, running 45 miles per hour would feel similar to a human running 80 miles per hour. No big deal.

As in the verb, "to binky." Yes, the terminology really is that cute. So what is binkying? It's basically just a silly bunny dance — the rabbit jumps and twists in the air to express its happiness in a truly adorable manner. Rabbits can also half-binky, which sounds like a skateboarding trick but really means a joyous flip of the head and ears.

Yeah, but it's not as gross as it sounds. Because rabbits eat so much fibrous vegetation, they need a little extra help digesting it. To achieve this, they pass two types of feces — regular droppings and caecotrophs, fibrous pellets that they eat in order to digest and extract all the necessary nutrients. And you thought eating grass sounded bad.

Rabbits' eyes might look a little odd sitting on the sides of their heads, but they really do give them superior vision. Rabbits can see almost 360 degrees around them, plus above them, probably so they can be on the lookout for flying predators. In fact, rabbits have just one blind spot — directly in front of their noses.