Why Do Rabbits Dig Burrows?
Mocha endlessly digging her way down isn't pure fantasy.
There really are rabbits that dig into the ground and live inside it: the European rabbit, which also happens to be the ancestor of the pet rabbits we keep at home.
The burrows they dig aren't simple holes, but something closer to an underground city, with many entrances and tunnels woven together like a spiderweb.
In English, this whole network of burrows is called a "warren." Inside, there are separate chambers for sleeping and for raising young, and it's all designed so that when danger strikes, the rabbits can scatter and flee through multiple exits.
The burrow is both home and shelter for a rabbit.
Up on the surface there are plenty of predators hunting them, but it's hard for those predators to chase a rabbit deep into a narrow tunnel.
Underground is also far more stable for escaping the heat of midsummer and the cold of midwinter.
What's interesting is that not all rabbits dig burrows.
Species like North America's cottontail tend to hide in thickets or borrow holes others have already dug, rather than digging their own.
Diligently turning over the earth is really the burrowing rabbit's specialty.
Mocha, it seems, inherited that hard-working bloodline.