So far every post’s title has been the name of an episode of a television show. In this post I’m going to talk about Bugs Bunny and I had a hard time choosing a title. Should I use an episode of Bugs Bunny that has hare in the title? Or should I use an episode that uses the word rabbit? The reason this is such a dilemma is because they’re not the same thing.
Over the years there have been hundreds of Bugs Bunny commercials and almost all of them have hare or rabbit in the title but Bugs Bunny can’t possibly be a hare and a rabbit because they are two completely different things. So which one is he?
The first difference between a hare and a rabbit is the way they are born and they way their mother raises them. Unfortunately we’ve never seen Bugs Bunny’s origin, nor have we seen his mother. We don’t know from that if he’s a hare or a rabbit.
What we do know is that Bugs Bunny is very tall and long, which suggests that Bugs Bunny is a hare. Hares have longer legs and longer ears than rabbits and Bugs Bunny has both long legs and long ears…or at least we think he does. He has longer legs and ears than a regular rabbit, but he’s also not a regular rabbit. Maybe he is a rabbit and a anthropomorphic hare would be even larger than Bugs Bunny. I’m going to say that this points to him being a hare though.
There is one thing that points towards Bugs Bunny being a rabbit though. Rabbits are more known for burrowing through the ground and living in the ground. Hares usually just hide among the plants and run away from any prey they might see. Of course we know from the cartoons that Bugs Bunny usually burrows through the ground. Even if he does always take a wrong turn at Albuquerque, that still suggests he is a rabbit.
The only other difference between rabbits and hares is that rabbits usually attack in a group. Bugs Bunny never has back up though. He’s always taking on others by himself so I guess that suggests he is a hare. Unfortunately the fact that he’s called “Bugs Bunny” doesn’t help any because the word “bunny” is used for both rabbits and hares.
We may never know the truth for sure but it’s quite possible that everybody’s favorite cartoon rabbit isn’t a rabbit at all.
