What is the history of the rabbit?

The European wild rabbit is the species from which all domestic rabbit breeds have been developed. Rabbits
were fairly widespread and abundant in Europe during the late Tertiary period and early Pleistocene epoch.
Abnormal climates during the Ice Age drove them to the southern parts of Europe.
First reports of rabbits were from Phoenician traders who visited the coast of Spain and the island along
the coast around 1100 b.c. The Phoenicians are probably responsible for transporting rabbits to other parts of
the world.
Rabbits were of great economic importance. They were hunted for food, and their pelts were used to make
clothing. Credit for domestication of the rabbit is given to French monks of the Middle Ages, who raised rabbits
in walled cages kept in their monasteries. They served as an easily raised source of food, and the fur was
used for clothing.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the European wild rabbit was introduced into Australia and
New Zealand, where it quickly spread and became a serious pest. Brought to Chile in the early twentieth
century, it eventually spread over much of the South American continent. Some European wild rabbits were
released on the San Juan Islands off Washington State in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth
century and have flourished since, but the major rabbit of North America remains the cottontail.