Do Rabbits Yawn?

Yawning is a perculiar thing that we as humans do.

There have been many different theories as to why we do it.

But the common denominator is that we do it when we are feeling sleepy.

A recent article in the smithsonian magazine about yawning commented;

Yawning—a stretching of the jaw, gaping of the mouth and long deep inhalation, followed by a shallow exhalation—may serve as a thermoregulatory mechanism, says Andrew Gallup, a psychology professor at SUNY College at Oneonta. In other words, it’s kind of like a radiator. In a 2007 study, Gallup found that holding hot or cold packs to the forehead influenced how often people yawned when they saw videos of others doing it. When participants held a warm pack to their forehead, they yawned 41 percent of the time. When they held a cold pack, the incidence of yawning dropped to 9 percent.

This is the most recent theory as to why we do it.

So as we are interested in the behavior of bunnies, do rabbits yawn?

Yes they do yawn.

For a rabbit, the reason is just the same as for humans.

They yawn when they are feeling sleepy. It can also indicate that they are feeling lazy.

The problem is that they look rather weird and rather terrifying when they yawn.

They bear their teeth and stretch their face out and look like they are being aggressive. But the good news is that they are having a good old yawn, so don’t be afraid.

We have no information as to why rabbits yawn, but as it is very similar in reasoning compared to us, there is a good presumption to be made that they do it for the same reason that we do, to regulate the temperature in their brain.

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