Monday, July 30, 2012

Bunnies by the numbers - it's scary!

One of the fabulous bunny authorities on the Bunny Care/Resource Links is to  Rabbit Health Central (U of Miami), by Dana Krempels (see her license plate here ... I wonder if she drives a VW Rabbit?).

I recently came across a post with one of Dr. Krepels' many articles; in it, she walks through the elements of applicable numbers (for example: how long bunnies can live, how many babies they can have per litter, how often they can have a litter) and selects some parameters for the assumptions of the math problem. Conservative assumptions.

You can check out the full explanation, but the bottom line is that after 7 years, the 2 (read: two) bunnies you start with have the reproductive capabilities to end up with almost 95 BILLION - that's BILLION with a "B"  - rabbits.

Whew!
And that's why your bunnies should be math impaired and you should adopt rabbits from your local rescue shelter.

Yes, they are cute.
But there are plenty to go around and
you can adopt them from your local rescue shelter.

7 comments:

  1. Another really fun example of rabbit mathematics (called the Fibonacci Sequence) is the book The Rabbit Problem, by Emily Gravett. It's wonderfully illustrated and a pop-up to boot!

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  2. well some people don't think about the math

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  3. A friend from work recently acquired a pet rabbit. When I ask how old it was and had it been "math impaired"(The source he got it from suggested that it hadn't) I was told it was a female so it didn't need to be spayed. I suggested that he check out the HRS web site and yes she needed to be spayed.

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    1. Yeah, you knew. It will also help the bunny live longer and be easier to litter box train.

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  4. Yup - you gotta stop them from doing what they are born to do!

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  5. I love that there is a University that has a study of rabbits! Maybe I should've transferred there...

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