Someone brought up this question and I'm really curious about the conventional Twitter wisdom on this. What's this difference between a bunny, a rabbit, and a hare?
And which one am I? ;)
@jakebe Biologists have divided rabbits and hares on fairly decent grounds, putting them in different genuses. Rabbits burrow, for example, while hares live above ground. Newborn hares have fur and their eyes are open; newborn rabbits need time to develop yet. Language doesn't quite match this divide (jackrabbits are hares, for example), but the division has got pretty good genetic, behavioral, and social grounds for it.
@jakebe Now, 'bunny' derives from a Scottish word used as an affectionate name for rabbits. The term traces back to meaning the 'tail of a hare', though, so that seems to cover both rabbits and hares.
@jakebe You, now? Certainly bunny, on the basis of the tail. If a jackalope is part jackrabbit, then, that gets you in under 'hares (magical)'.
@jakebe *very Neil DeGrasse Tyson voice*
Hares are altricial and always have black tipped ears; rabbits are precocious and don’t.
@jakebe My opinion? Bunny implies female, rabbit is either gender, hare implies male. You are a rabbit.