Can Hares and Domestic Rabbits Crossbreed Successfully? An Analysis of the Differences Between the Two
In rural areas today, just one female domestic rabbit and one male rabbit are enough to breed dozens of inbred baby rabbits. So can hares and domestic rabbits crossbreed? What are the differences between the two? According to Master Ying, a large-scale rabbit breeder, domestic rabbits have 22 pairs of chromosomes, while hares have 24 pairs, a difference of 2 pairs. Their genetic relationship is even more distant than that between horses and donkeys (the former has 32 pairs of chromosomes, the latter 31 pairs). This means they cannot mate! But interpreted from another angle, if hares were originally domestic rabbits released into the wild, then hares and domestic rabbits mating would not count as crossbreeding; they simply live in different locations, not that they are different species. Seen this way, the so-called hares and domestic rabbits can indeed mate and produce offspring.
Hare
Master Ying also revealed the differences between domestic rabbits and hares:
1. Body size
Domestic rabbits are larger in size, generally weighing over 3.5 kg, with a maximum of up to 8 kg; hares are relatively much smaller, generally weighing around 2.5 kg, with a maximum of only 3.5 kg, and hares weighing 4 kg are extremely rare.
2. Appearance
Domestic rabbits have shorter ears than hares; hares have relatively long ears. Domestic rabbits are larger in build than hares, but hares have relatively long forelegs and tails. This also helps them escape in the wild! Rabbits are at the very bottom of the food chain, and the wild environment is full of dangers for them! So they need sharper hearing and more developed limbs! Domestic rabbits lack all of these.
3. Chromosomes
Domestic rabbits have 22 pairs of chromosomes, while hares have 24 pairs, a difference of 2 pairs. Their genetic relationship is even more distant than that between horses and donkeys (the former has 32 pairs of chromosomes, the latter 31 pairs). This means they cannot mate!
4. Reproductive capacity
Through long-term raising, domestication and breeding by humans, domestic rabbits have become animals with high reproductive performance. Their gestation period is 30 days, and they can produce 6 to 10 litters per month, because people try every means to breed more of them to make money! Hares produce only one litter per year, with 4 to 8 young per year, which is completely different!
Domestic rabbit
5. Characteristics of young rabbits
Newborn domestic rabbit kits are altricial. At birth they are completely bare with no fur, their eyes and ears are not open, they have basically no ability to move, and they cannot regulate their own body temperature. Domestic rabbit kits open their eyes at around 15 days, and at around 20 days they can eat a small amount of alfalfa and go out with the mother rabbit. Newborn hares, by contrast, are precocial: they are born with fur all over their bodies, their eyes can see, their ears can hear, and young hares can walk 3 days after birth and can feed themselves.
Appendix: Chromosomes are aggregates formed by the deep compression of genetic material with hereditary properties within cells. They are easily stained dark by basic dyes, hence the name chromosome (composed of chromatin); chromosomes and chromatin are the same substance in different morphological forms during the interphase and division phase of cell division. Chromosomes appear during the division phase. Chromatin appears during interphase and is thread-like. In essence, both are combinations of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and protein (that is, composed of nucleoprotein), unevenly distributed in the cell nucleus, and are the main carriers of genetic information (genes), but not the only carriers (such as mitochondria within the cytoplasm).