(Pictures are provided at bottom of the article, so you can see the leg/ foot of a bunny and imagine it walking in a horizontal position, versus a vertical position)
*Author's note: Before you read on- this is all observation, and theory. As of now, I've done NO research on the bunny's movements/ evolutionary changes/ nor even any possible relation to the kangaroo.*
Bunnies can ONLY jump.
(It may be obvious, but I like it, for a topic).
Short story: <seen a bunny outside today. Watched it eat for a bit, and it took a small hop just to move an inch, and that's when my thought began.>
Bunnies are the closest animal equivalent, to a human on all fours.
If a human were on all fours, and convinced themselves to keep their legs fully outstretched and their arms as well, they would find great difficulty walking in that position. So most people would adopt a "spider-man" pose: bent knees and fully extended arms.
Humans find it much easier to walk upright. It's no wonder why...
Now if we look at the bunny closely- we see they can't bend their knees and pull their legs closer to their body- instead, they can really, only extend their foot backward, and hoist their bodies upward.
Even if you can't visualize what I just described, you'll visualize this next point a bit better.
Since the bunny not only has an (overall) ill-proportioned body/ frontal, leg length - hind, leg length ratio
but *long expansive hind feet,* you can clearly compare this model to the human on all fours- with an additional pair of scuba flippers!
Walking on all fours like this, and attempting to roll your foot inside a scuba flipper, would be tricky.
Except the bunny is in such a compromised position, it would be like bending these "scuba flippers" back and forth causing the center of gravity to be compromised altogether, and would provoke the bunny to fall forward, at the very least.
The 'long feet and long hind leg' combination, prevents the bunny from being able to walk as any dog or cat typically would, moving all 4 legs; each leg moving separately from the others.
The bunny, because of this unfortunate position, is only allowed to hoist its frontal body slightly upwards, or fully outward as much as possible, just enough to pick up its back feet and pull both into itself, making 1 complete hop.
Let's say the bunny should be able to walk upright, if it wanted to. It cannot even hop upright as a kangaroo would because there is no tail to stabilize the bunny, nor its center of gravity. It also doesn't help that the full spine seems to force the bunny to essentially, look like the "Hunchback of Notre Dame," and have to adapt because of this.
****The only way for these little dudes to move conveniently, and efficiently, is to draw both backward feet in. To Hop.
The main reason why? the Evolutionary Products, known as: Long feet and a short tail.****
Thanks for reading! Hope it was thought-provoking for you too. Feel free to check the images below, and notice the bunny's back legs.
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