Currently, two European Rabbit subspecies are well recognized O. c. cuniculus Linnaeus, 1758 and O. c. algirus Loche, 1858. Multiple genetic evidence indicates that they evolved independently, approximately 2 Ma during the Quaternary glaciations (Alves et al. 2008), and have different geographical ranges. In addition to this evidence, noticeable differences between rabbit subspecies in parasitology, behaviour, reproduction, and morphology have been reported. These differences, together with recent evidence of genomic incompatibilities and partial reproductive isolation, have raised the question of whether O. c. algirus and O. c. cuniculus are nascent or already well-separated species (Delibes-Mateos et al. 2018).

European regional assessment: Near Threatened (NT)
EU 27 regional assessment: Near Threatened (NT)

Subpopulations in all parts of Europe where the European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) has been established since before 1500 CE are considered for this European regional assessment (following the Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional and National Levels; IUCN 2012). Significant declines have been reported in many parts of the Rabbit's European range, and it is inferred that declines approach 30% over the last 12 years (three generation lengths) overall. Consequently, the European Rabbit is assessed as Near Threatened (approaching A2b) for both Europe and for the EU27 Member States. In many countries outside Europe, the Rabbit is an alien invasive species that is itself a threat to many other species; the listing of Near Threatened in Europe should not in any way deter efforts to eradicate the rabbit in areas where it is a conservation problem.

The fossil record suggests that the European Rabbit likely originated in the Iberian Peninsula (Alves et al. 2008), from where it would have expanded naturally to southern France and northern Africa. Natural subpopulations of this species are currently widespread in Portugal, Spain, southern France, and possibly in northern Africa. The subspecies O. c. algirus only occurs in south-western Iberia (Portugal and southern Spain) and as introductions to the Azores, Madeira, and Canary Islands, whereas O. c. cuniculus is naturally present in northeastern Iberia and in southern France. This latter subspecies (O. c. cuniculus) has been introduced (as feral type) in several other Central European countries and in the United Kingdom. Moreover, the high adaptability of the feral forms of O. c. cuniculus promoted the successful establishment of the European Rabbit in all continents except Antarctica, as well as on at least 800 islands worldwide (Thompson and King 1994).

European Rabbit spread in Europe was reviewed by Thompson and King (1994). The first introductions referred to the introduction in Menorca by eolithic settlers as early as 1400–1300 BCE. Later, the Phoenicians and the Romans spread the species around Mediterranean Europe. In the Middle Ages, rabbit gardens and warrens were built in France, Britain, and Germany, because their meat was highly appreciated. Multiple human introductions resulted in the slow spread of feral rabbits over much of Europe. As a consequence, the species currently occurs in many European countries as an exotic feral species, including Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Ukraine (not mapped), Russian Federation (not mapped), Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. It is also present in many European islands such as the Canary Islands, Mallorca and Menorca, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Crete. In the Azores and Madeira archipelagos, the introduced subspecies is O. c. algirus, being the only places where this subspecies was successfully introduced in Europe (Delibes-Mateos et al. 2021).

Historically, European Rabbits reached very high numbers both in their native range and in areas where the species was introduced. It is not well known how rabbit populations fluctuated since those ancient times to the twentieth century, when the first rabbit monitoring efforts were done. Nevertheless, most evidence suggests that for centuries the species was abundant in many European regions. Records of the number of game animals harvested at the beginning of the twentieth century indicate that rabbits were still abundant in several European regions. For example, hunting bags of over 10 rabbits/ha were common in northern France from 1920 to 1950 (Thompson and King 1994). In Britain, the number of rabbits killed per year at the beginning of the twentieth century was more than double of that recorded during the first decade of the twenty-first century (Aebischer et al. 2011). However, during the second half of the twentieth century, the advent of two viral diseases (myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease, RHD) together with changes in land use and subsequent habitat loss devastated most rabbit populations across Europe. In the Iberian Peninsula, recent negative population trends have been reported in the distribution area of O. c. algirus, while more stable or even positive trends have been reported in the distribution area of O. c. cuniculus (Vaquerizas et al. 2020).

The worldwide distribution of rabbits reveals their ecological plasticity and their capacity to subsist in many different habitats (Thompson and King 1994). In their native range, rabbits typically prefer areas with a mosaic of shrub and grasses and/or crops: shrub provides protection against predators but low forage abundance, whereas grassland and crops offer little protective vegetation but high food availability (Calvete et al. 2004). In fact, in Iberian Mediterranean-scrubland ecosystems, rabbits reach the highest abundance in the ecotone, which provides intermediate levels of both resources (Lombardi et al. 2003, Calvete et al. 2004).

During the second half of the twentieth century, the advent of two viral diseases (myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD)) together with changes in land use and subsequent habitat loss devastated most rabbit populations across Europe. The species is both hunted as and controlled.

The European Rabbit is a game species not only in its native range in southern Europe but also in countries where the species has been introduced like in the United Kingdom, Italy, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, etc. In the Iberian Peninsula, the rabbit is one of the most sought-after small game species, and many of the more than 800,000 and 150,000 Spanish and Portuguese hunters, respectively, preferentially hunt rabbits; for example, rabbits are hunted in >95% of the more than 5,000 game estates in Castilla-La Mancha region, central Spain (Delibes-Mateos et al. 2021). The importance of this lagomorph as a game species in its native range is also well illustrated by the fact that between 6 and 9 million rabbits are killed by hunters annually in Spain. Rabbit hunting season is variable among countries. Outside the native range, hunting seasons range from restricted (e.g., Hungary) to open hunting seasons (e.g., UK) (see factsheets on http://www.face.eu). In the native range (Iberian Peninsula), hunting is restricted to autumn/winter (Angulo and Villafuerte 2003), although special permits are often granted to kill rabbits out of the general hunting period in some agricultural areas where the lagomorph causes damage to crops (Delibes-Mateos et al. 2021).

The decline of Iberian Rabbit populations caused by the new variant of RHD in the 2010s led to the recent change in the conservation status of the European Rabbit by IUCN to Endangered (Villafuerte and Delibes-Mateos 2019). This assessment was mostly based on the declining situation of O. c. algirus since information about rabbit population trends in the native range of O. c. cuniculus is scarce (Vaquerizas et al. 2020).

In areas where the European Rabbit has been introduced, it is often considered as a harmful invasive species due to its characteristic of a successful colonizer. This contradiction explains its IUCN classification as Near Threatened in Europe (Smith and Boyer 2007) and highlights the character of the rabbit as a conservation paradox for the twenty-first century (Lees and Bell 2008). In addition, this may suggest the need for separate IUCN assessments for both European Rabbit subspecies.