Semmann tested 24 humans in a computer simulation<\/a> where the humans acted as \u201cpredators.\u201d The humans were asked to repeatedly \u2018follow\u2019 a fleeing bunny by clicking one of three buttons; left, right, or unsure. The bunny would make unpredictable lateral escapes to the left or right at random time intervals.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere were two conditions: 1) no tail, and 2) with a tail. Semmann and his colleagues found that for the tail condition, correct responses were significantly lower, and wrong\/uncertain responses were significantly higher. When broken down into fast and slow responses, correct responses for the tail condition were significantly higher only in the slow responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This provides strong evidence to support Semmann\u2019s theory for why bunnies have bright, white tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But why does your domestic bunny have a tail? It is purely a decorative tail that is part of the evolutionary gene pool. You may notice that your pet bunny\u2019s tail isn\u2019t even white. It has likely been slowly bred out of your bunny\u2019s gene pool as domestic bunnies are bred together. Throughout each generation, there is less and less need for a white tail to distract predators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tail of your domestic bunny can often be shorter than a wild bunny\u2019s tail. This is likely because of modern breeding practices where breeders want to try to achieve a specific look. This is becoming more and more popular with the rise in popularity of bunny shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can A Bunny Lose Their Tail?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bunnies can lose their tail, but not by a natural measure. They will only lose their tail by force. This is either by another bunny biting their tail off, biting their own tail off, or their tail being pulled or cut off. These are all horrific circumstances and if your bunny happens to lose their tail under any circumstance, you must take them to the vet immediately and try to stop the bleeding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Care should always be taken when handling your bunny. Never pull a bunny by their tail to get them out of a tight spot or to discipline them. You can actually pull a bunnies tail off! And they don\u2019t grow back. This is a cruel way to handle your bunny. Rather, discipline can be done through mimicking a bunnies communication language such as stomping your feet or turning your back to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Does Your Bunny Need A Tail?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Domestic bunnies don\u2019t need a tail as a wild bunny does as there is a much-reduced risk of encountering predators. Now that doesn\u2019t mean your bunnies tail should ever be removed. But they can live fully normal, happy lives without a tail if for some reason their tail was lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wrapping Up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Your domestic bunny\u2019s fluffy tail is purely a decorative part of their body. In the wild, it is used to distract their predators so they have a greater chance of surviving. Never pull on your bunny\u2019s tale and always handle your bunny with care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bunnies, especially wild bunnies, have a bright white underside of their tail. You might be wondering, why would a prey animal have something that would make it easier for their predators to spot them? Presenting a bright tail would seem to be flawed because it appears to increase rather than reduce predator attention. The white, […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunnyparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunnyparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunnyparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunnyparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunnyparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bunnyparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1416,"href":"https:\/\/bunnyparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781\/revisions\/1416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunnyparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunnyparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunnyparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunnyparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}