The European Rabbit or Common Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a species of rabbit native to south-west Europe and north-west Africa. After its successful introduction to New Zealand in the 1860's, the rabbit spread throughout the country until almost all suitable habitats were occupied. Populations built-up in the absence of effective control to densities in the drier areas of 40 to 50 per acre. Australia and New Zealand have problems with European Rabbits due to a lack of natural predation - you could clap your hands and the whole hillsides moved. The European Rabbit is well-known for digging networks of burrows called warrens, where it spends most of its time when not feeding. Unlike hares, rabbits are altricial, the young being born blind and furless, in a fur-lined nest in the warren, and they are totally dependent upon their mother.