Russian rabbit
The Russian rabbit or Russian is a small breed of rabbit . In the English-speaking world she is known as the Himalayan Rabbit .
Appearance of the Russian rabbit
The Russian rabbit is the smallest rabbit breed after the dwarf rabbits . His weight is 2.25 kg with a slightly stocky build. The Russian rabbit has a pure white, dense fur, red eyes and colored ears, legs, muzzle (mask) and flower. The Russian rabbit is recognized in the colors black and blue.
The corresponding hereditary formulas are:
- Black: anBCDg (German symbols) or aBchDE (English symbols)
- Blue: anBCdg (German symbols) or aBchdE (English symbols)
Acromelanism / Russian factor
The Russian factor (an or cH), referred to as the Himalayan in English, causes partially albinotic animals with red eyes. Only the snout, ears, legs and flower are colored (acromelanism). In the mutation type derived from the wild color, the underside of the flowers is light, the markings are chinchilla-colored. Standard animals show monochrome black or blue markings. The dark color of the extremities is caused by so-called cold blackening. Only those parts of the body where the skin temperature is below 35 ° C (according to other information 28 ° C) develop a color. The cause of this phenomenon is the presence of a heat-labile tyrosinase . For this reason, the drawing of Russian rabbits is usually much more pronounced in winter than in summer, in very mild areas it is more difficult to get well-drawn animals. In older animals, a dark zone sometimes appears around the eyes. If part of the fur of an animal with a Russian factor is shorn in winter, dark hair will grow back there, and the resulting stain will disappear the next time it changes hair. The young of the Russian rabbits are born pure white, the formation of the drawing only takes place after leaving the nest during the first hair changes. If the young animals are exposed to the cold during the suckling period, there is often a gray tinge to the coat, which disappears when the coat changes .
History of the Russian rabbit
The Russian rabbit is one of the oldest rabbit breeds. There are reports that it was kept as a sacrificial animal in Asia centuries ago, but these reports are not supported by sources in the literature ( Darwin writes that Confucius lists the rabbit as a worthy sacrifice for the gods, he quotes this indirectly. Confucius may not have known the house rabbit, however, as it was not domesticated during its lifetime and the wild form did not occur in China. If the ascribed quote is correct, it may refer to another type of rabbit ). Joppich quotes without further details "records of the German old master of rabbit breeding, Paul Waser". Since the rabbit is not found wild in Asia, these accounts are considered legends in recent literature.
Various names are given for the Russian rabbit in ancient literature, including Siberian, Chinese, Egyptian, Polish and Windsor rabbits.
The first descriptions from Europe are reported for 1854 from France and 1857 in England : Charles Darwin writes:
- "Two life rabbits were brought to me from Moscow, of about the size of the wild species, but with long soft fur, different from that of the Angora. These Mosow rabbits had pink eyes and were snow-white, excepting the ears, two spots near the nose, the upper and under surface of the tail and the hinder tarsi which were blackish-brown, In short they were colored nearly like the so- called Himalayan rabbits, presently to be described and different to them only in the character of their fur. "
Translation:
- Two live rabbits were brought to me from Moscow, about the size of the wild species, but with long, soft fur, different from that of the angora. These Moscow rabbits had pink eyes and were snow white, except for the ears, two spots on the nose, the upper and lower surfaces of the tail, and the hind limbs, which were blackish-brown. In short, they were almost colored like the so-called Himalayan rabbits, which are described below, and differed from them only by the character of their fur.
A few lines further it says:
- "We come now to the Himalayan breed which is sometimes called Chinese, Polish, or Russian. These pretty rabbits are white, or occasionally yellow, excepting their ears, nose, feet and the upper side of the tail, which are all brownish-black, but the have red eyes, they may be considered as albinos. I have received several accounts of their breeding perfectly true. From their symmetrical marks, they were at first ranked as a specifically distinct and were provisionally named L. nigripes. "
Translation:
- We come now to the Himalayan rabbit, which is sometimes also called Chinese, Polish or Russian. These pretty rabbits are white, or sometimes yellow, except for their ears, nose, feet, and the top of the tail, which are blackish brown, but they have red eyes, they might be considered albinos. I have received several reports of their purity. Due to their symmetrical markings, they were first classified as species-wise and given the provisional name L. (Lepus) nigrides.
The Russian rabbit described by Darwin represents, according to Hochstrasser, a combination of the Russian coloration with the tan factor (according to Hochstrasser badge preservation factor ), since rabbits that combine the Russian and wild color factor have chinchilla-colored markings. Such animals fall from breeding of chinchilla- colored marten rabbits . The hereditary formula can thus be used as
- anBCDg0 (German symbols) or atBchDE (English symbols)
can be specified.
Darwin describes in the further course that these rabbits were obtained from crosses between "common black rabbits" and chinchillas (for which black and chinchilla-colored offspring are given, which speaks for a split between the parents in the albino series) and with silver rabbits. Today we know that the Russian drawing is based on a mutation in the albino series. Darwin already describes in great detail the phenomenon of cold blackening, especially in young animals, but relates this to the silver rabbits who were born black and then whitened. One must be aware that at that time Mendel's rules had only just been published (and were overlooked by Darwin throughout his life) and that the genetics of fur colors in rabbits was only clarified much later. The Russian rabbit was bred as a breed in England and is already listed in Germany in the first standards in 1893 as one of five rabbit breeds known at that time and has since been bred here and in other countries in principle in unchanged form and is regularly seen at exhibitions.
Similar races
The European standard knows a large Russian rabbit, a medium-sized breed of rabbit.
In addition, there is a medium-sized economic breed, the Californian , which also shows the drawing of the Russian rabbit.
In the “Evaluation Regulations for Pedigree Rabbits in Socialist Countries”, which also applied in the GDR from 1980 until reunification , the Nitran rabbit was recognized, a Czech breed, a medium-sized rabbit with blue markings, which is still bred in the Czech Republic today .
There are also Russian-colored beats in Angora , Rex rabbits , satin rabbits and dwarf rabbits .
The standard form of the marten rabbit is split-tinged, the crossing of type-specific animals results in 25% pure-breeding Russian-colored animals.
The Russian coloring in other animal species
The Russians coloring is also guinea pigs , hamsters , pet rats , color mice and cats with Colorpoint staining known.
literature
- JC Sandford: The domestic rabbit. 5th edition. Blackwell Science, Oxford 1996, ISBN 0-632-03894-2 .
- Standard van de Konijnenrassen recognized in Nederland. Cavia´s en kleine Knaagdieren, Nederlandse Konijnenfokkersbond, Venlo 1990.
- J. Broekhuis, DWH Krooshof: Rasbeschrijfing van de Rus, Californian, Nieuwzeelander, Nederlandse Russen . Californian & Witte Nieuwzeelander Club, 1996.
- W. Schlohlaut: The big book of the rabbit. 2nd Edition. DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt 1998, ISBN 3-7690-0554-6 .
- C. Darwin: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. London 1868, Chapter IV, The domestic rabbit.
- F. Joppich: The rabbit. VEB Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1967.
- FK Dorn, G. March: Breed rabbit breeding. 5th edition. Neumann-Verlag, Leipzig / Radebeul 1981.
- J. Kapp: Chinchilla-colored marten rabbits. In: rabbits. 10/1999, ISSN 0941-0848
- G. Hochstrasser: Investigations on the history of the early rabbits in Germany. In: rabbits. 10/1999, ISSN 0941-0848