Rabbits: The Animal Answer Guide

Did you know that there are more than 90 species of rabbits, hares, and pikas, rabbits' little-known cousins? And that new species are still being found? Or that baby rabbits nurse from their mothers only once a day? How about that some people brew medicinal tea from rabbit pellets? Wildlife conservationists Susan Lumpkin and John Seidensticker have all the answers―from the mundane to the unbelievable―about the world’s leaping lagomorphs.

To some, rabbits are simply a docile pet for the classroom or home. To others, they are the cute animals munching on clover or the pests plaguing vegetable gardens. Whatever your interest, in Rabbits: The Animal Answer Guide you will discover that they are a more complex group than you might have first imagined. Lumpkin and Seidensticker take these floppy-eared creatures out of the cabbage patch and into the wild, answering 95 frequently asked questions about these familiar and fascinating animals.

With informative photographs and an accessible format, Rabbits: The Animal Answer Guide is the one resource you will need to learn about rabbits' anatomy and physiology, evolutionary history, ecology, behavior, and their relationships with humans. Lumpkin and Seidensticker also talk about conservation, because while rabbits may breed like, well, rabbits, several species are among the most endangered animals on Earth.

Susan Lumpkin is a freelance writer and editor specializing in natural history and conservation. Between 1990 and 2008 she was director of communications at Friends of the National Zoo and editor of its ZooGoer magazine. She is now consultant to the Global Tiger Initiative.

John Seidensticker is a conservation scientist and head of the Conservation Ecology Center at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. He serves as chairman of the Save the Tiger Fund Council and is an affiliate professor of environmental science and policy at George Mason University. Lumpkin and Seidensticker have collaborated on numerous publications, including Cats: Smithsonian Answer Book.