Rabbit Lab

Question 1

Five mammal characteristics

Answer 1

1. hair
2. mammary glands
3. three bones in the middle ear
4. lower jaw made of two bones (dentaries)
5. diaphragm separating the thoracic and abdominopelvic cavities

Question 2

dewlap

Answer 2

fold on the ventral side of the rabbit’s neck

Question 3

Rabbits have large, highly vascularized __ that can move independently of each other.

Answer 3

pinnae

Question 4

What kind of circulatory system does a rabbit have?

Answer 4

Double loop- both pulmonary and systemic circuits

Question 5

Deoxygenated blood enters the __ atrium; oxygenated blood enters the __ atrium.

Answer 5

right

left

Question 6

Where is a rabbit’s cecum?

Answer 6

At the end of its digestive tract between the small and large intestines

Question 7

What does the cecum do?

Answer 7

Has microbes that break down and digest the fiber and other food, allowing the release of volatile fatty acids, sugars, amino acids, minerals, and vitamins

Question 8

Cecotropes

Answer 8

What the rabbit breaks down in the cecum, other than the volatile fatty acids, are excreted in these soft fecal pellets the rabbit then eats (they are coprophagous)

Question 9

What is the rabbit waste product?

Answer 9

urea (they are ureoteles)

Question 10

How do mammals concentrate urine?

Answer 10

counter-current exchange system in their kidneys

Question 11

Where are the rabbit’s kidneys located?

Answer 11

they are embedded in the dorsal body wall

Question 12

Reproductively, the rabbit is a ___ mammal.

Answer 12

placental

Question 13

Four types of uteri and where they are found

Answer 13

1. duplex (rabbits, rodents, marsupials)
2. bipartite (ruminants)
3. bicornuate (dogs, whales, pigs)
4. simplex (higher primates, us)

Question 14

Duplex uterus

Answer 14

two completely separate uteri, each with its own fallopian tube

Question 15

Bipartite uterus

Answer 15

two uteri separate for most of their length, but share one cervix

Question 16

Bicornuate uterus

Answer 16

upper parts of the uterus are separate, but the lower parts fuse

Question 17

Simplex uterus

Answer 17

entire uterus is fused into a single organ

Question 18

What triggers ovulation in rabbits?

Answer 18

mating

Question 19

Where does rabbit fertilization occur?

Answer 19

ostium

Question 20

Where does the rabbit fetus develop?

Answer 20

uterus

Question 21

Rabbit sexual maturity

Answer 21

3 to 8 months (females)

Question 22

Female rabbits pull hair from their ___ to create a nest for their young.

Answer 22

dewlap

Question 23

The _________ from each testis join at the __, which carries sperm to the female’s vagina.

Answer 23

vas deferens

urethra

Question 24

Male rabbits can ____ their testicles abdominally when there is not much food available or during periods of sexual inactivity.

Answer 24

retract

Question 25

Within the penis of many male placental mammals is a ______ penis bone, which aids in the male maintaining an erection for penetration.

Answer 25

baculum/os

Question 26

Instead of an os penis, rabbits have a free extremity known as the _____, which is covered by a fold of skin called the ____.

Answer 26

pars libera

prepuce

Question 27

Coprophagy

Answer 27

animal eats feces