T. Neil Davis is a seismologist at the institute. It appears that there is more to being a rabbit than one is led to believe, hearing only the stories and jokes about the animal's reproductive capability. Indeed, one learns much that is surprising by reading an Avon paperback by R. M. Lockley called The Private Life of the Rabbit . Among the topics covered there is the curious manner in which a European rabbit processes its food. It is a scheme designed to allow for a relatively short eating period followed by an extended interval for food processing.
Rabbits typically graze during the afternoon and evening hours.
Simultaneously, the new food taken in passes down through the stomach into the eaecum. The eaecum, also called the blind gut, is a stomach-sized sack opening onto the digestive system just above the rabbit's intestine. In the blind gut the ingested food is formed into soft pellets surrounded by a glossy membrane made of mucous secretions of the blind gut. The coated soft pellets travel down the intestine and are passed back to the rabbit's mouth through the anus. The reingestion into the mouth may occur above ground while the rabbit is still grazing, but usually it occurs underground in the rabbit's burrow.