Man’s worst friend

What do we know about rabbits and what can they teach us about humankind? How did they associate us with them, as friend or foe? How does their history meet with our own conflicts? What have they led us to do and vice versa? To try to answer these questions, it is necessary to connect various times and places, by retracing multiple and interrupted trajectories, places and times, brought together incongruously. In Man’s worst friend (1), Catherine Mougenot and Lucienne Strivay, show us the rabbit in all its aspects. While it is appreciated for its meat, fur and gentle nature, it has also turned out to be an invader that is difficult to drive out and even – it must be said – eradicate. Let’s take a brief look at the living conditions of this small animal which has the habit of nosing in where you least expect it.

At the origin of all domestic rabbits, the wild rabbit has always lived alongside humans. Originally from the Iberian peninsula, oryctolagus cuniculus belongs to the family of leporids. Nowadays, it can be found on all the continents (except for Antarctica) and on 800 islands or groups of islands. Despite thinking we knew everything about it, the two authors of this work have proved us wrong. “We’ve discovered that what we know about the rabbit is, in fact, highly fragmented and paradoxical”,  explains Lucienne Strivay, responsible for the Anthropology of Nature classes in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences. “As we carried out our research, we quickly understood that it was going to completely outflank us!” And that’s because the rabbit pops up where we least expect it to and in the most unlikely situations. “Our research wouldn’t have been possible without the internet”, continues Catherine Mougenot, Head of Works in the Department of Sciences and Environmental Management. “Today, this source of documentation is very interesting because it allows us to compile documents from many different eras and from various fields of knowledge.” The rabbit’s way of life, its diseases, its introduction to new countries, but especially its presence in unexpected forms, opens up new spheres: ecological imperialism, the complex involvement of the animals in human power and economic games, policies at the risk of strategies concerning struggles or protection, the absolute impossibility for us in the living world to truly separate the sensitive and the intelligible.

In the beginning was the wild rabbit

If we examine the ethology of oryctolagus cuniculus, it quickly becomes clear to what extent this animal is a stay-at-home. This is what encourages it to breed in reserved spaces known as rabbit ‘warrens’ (possibly from the Old French warenne, meaning an enclosed area), a term that lies at the origin of its vernacular name.

But Peter Rabbit has nevertheless accompanied settlers, missionaries and great adventurers on their journeys. In the Middle Ages, the species was already common in many places in the Western world, where it was hunted, cooked and skinned for its fur. And it was also profitable. In England, for instance, where it had proved difficult to acclimatise it, rabbitting (breeding and trading in rabbits) flourished until the beginning of the 18th century.
 
The rabbit, which also has the particularity of being able to reproduce very quickly – and in large numbers -, ensures a continuous availability of meat with a high level of animal protein. With an average of 25 young a year for ground-reared rabbits, and more than 46 young rabbits in the case of cage breeding, it is one of the most prolific mammals. But multitude doesn’t necessarily go hand in hand with plenitude. On the contrary. Man may well have thought that he had a sound grip on the animal, but we are forced to note that it is capable of causing a great deal of damage: “In Roman times, there was already an attempt to get rid of the rabbit”, says Lucienne Strivay. “Fences, traps, all sorts of weapons, poisons, and different techniques existed, with varying success in each case”. At the end of the 18th century, in France and in England, the animal moved to the category of “pest”: “Measures were taken against it, like the Ground Game Act in Great Britain”, continues Catherine Mougenot, “which authorised the use of the gin trap, a fearsome instrument originally used for bears and even smugglers...”

At the same time, the rabbit entered into the imaginative world of children. Oryctolagus cuniculus was accepted into the family and became a pet. This didn’t however prevent the development of ‘rational’ breeding, known as cuniculture, based on increasingly sophisticated selection. Bred on a small scale on the one hand and industrially on the other, Peter has been bred in all sorts of ways. And the ways in which he is depicted are far from being the same everywhere…

The case in Australia

While France and England experienced an explosion in their rabbit populations, it bears no resemblance to what Australia is still experiencing today. It nevertheless took the English settlers seventy years of introducing traditional small game to establish Peter in this recently discovered land. In 1859, the Englishman Thomas Austin, a great lover of hunting, decided to import several couples of rabbits into his new homeland. An eagerly-awaited hobby that was to turn into a nightmare. Proving their undeniable ability to adapt, the rabbits, which encountered very few predators in this land of welcome, multiplied endlessly, reaching a record number of 600 million! They took advantage of the lack of competition, the clearing of forests and the recent cultivation of vast areas of land. Hence, they ruined the numerous squatters who had just found an easy way to make money from breeding the recently imported ewes.

Hunting, traps, fencing, explosives, the introduction of the rabbit’s natural predators (foxes, cats, etc.), and spectacular barriers were all methods that were used to try to overcome the problem. In the 1950s, the authorities authorised the introduction of a deadly virus: myxomatosis, accidentally discovered in South America in 1898 by Guiseppe Sanarelli (a pupil of Louis Pasteur). The disease is spread by fleas, flies and mosquitoes and causes the development of tumours and oedema that eventually kill the animal in less than two weeks. The European rabbit, which was the only animal susceptible to this deadly virus, was in danger. In the beginning, myxomatosis affected 90% of the populations in Australia and New Zealand, as well as in Europe, where it was illegally introduced. But the authorities didn’t count on the natural weakening of the virus and the incredible ability of oryctolagus cuniculus to resist it. The supposedly vanquished rabbit may have been weakened by this battle, but it was still there.

The authorities are currently considering the introduction of a new immunocontraceptive to manage the spread of the rabbit through the genetic modification of the trypanosome in the vectors of myxomatosis. “It is paradoxical in Australia to see inhabitants who endeavoured for 70 years to establish this species in their country turning against it”, stresses Lucienne Strivay. “It makes us realise that although we started out with something seemingly very harmless, it has resulted in humanity being faced with some very serious questions. We’re speaking here of biological warfare, i.e. a “living poison” in the words of Louis Pasteur, which alone could put a stop to this rampant prolificity! And all this comes at a time when we’re starting to take stock of the disappearance of so many species!”

Going into reverse

Australia, New Zealand and Chile remain the main countries where serious problems with the rabbit continue to exist, while everywhere else, the means deployed against it, combined with a deterioration of the landscape, seem to have got the better of it. While it could be found on the edge of any forest just after the Second World War, it now has a very uncertain future Europe: although in decline in the west and south of France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and even Great Britain, it remains a pest in other farming areas. “In the past 30 years, its populations have fallen by 70%, and even 90 % in some places”, says Catherine Mougenot. “In France and Spain, research has been financed to find a solution to the reintroduction of the species.” Because of its increasing scarcity, the rabbit accentuates the threat to certain predators that previously feasted on this animal and are now seriously endangered. Ironically, as a result of its extermination, the scarcity of the rabbit has raised it to the rank of national heritage in some regions.

According to some naturalists, the wild rabbit should indeed be protected. In an ever-evolving world, intensive farming, concentrations of farms and the cutting down of hedges will get the better of it… in the wild, of course, because the ones in industrial hutches, which end up in our plates, continue to increase and be deep frozen in somewhat questionable conditions!

A rabbit in a hat

Just when the authors thought they had exhausted the subject, they were most surprised to discover other evermore incredible stories about Peter on the internet. “Because the rabbit always pops up where you least expect it”, smiles Lucienne Strivay. Like in this unintended 155-km rabbit warren between the two sections of the Berlin wall, or the plan to present a fluorescent rabbit at the Avignon arts festival in 2000, that had been genetically modified by elements extracted from jellyfish so that it would become fluorescent when placed under a UV lamp. Alba, the name of this doe, which died two years later for some obscure reason, caused a public outcry. Once again, the rabbit was caught between the absurdity of two contradictory poles: causing outrage because it had been genetically modified in the name of art despite the fact that its everyday use in laboratories has become commonplace.

“The rabbit always finds itself in paradoxical situations”, concludes Lucienne Strivay. “Domesticated yet still wild, and a stay-at-home that’s running around all over the world. In addition, it’s both a pet and a lab animal. It’s farmed for its meat but also for its fur, and it’s also a therapeutic animal. The rabbit’s modes of existence are as varied as they are heterogeneous”. In this work, the authors engage in a race-cum-chase with living beings, both human and non-human, who are continuously modifying the rules of an ever-changing game. This book was constructed “with only a beginning, but no middle or end, with numerous entries like an animal rhizome: it’s a burrow”.

(1) Mougenot C., Strivay L., Le pire ami de l’homme. Du lapin de garenne aux guerres biologiques., La Découverte, coll. Les empêcheurs de tourner en rond, 2011.