The
Wine Rabbit
The
wine rabbit, Oryctolagus
cuniculus vino, is a
sub-species of the common rabbit, and did not originally exist in the
wild. It was first created through selective breeding in France,
during the late fifteen-hundreds.
At
the time, rabbit stewed in wine had become an absolute delicacy, and
cooks were experimenting with a number of variations on cooking
methods for this much-prized dish. Jean de la Rouille was one of
them, and he started breeding his rabbits himself, and giving them
only wine to drink until they reached adulthood, so that the taste
would permeate the rabbit's flesh.
At
first, most of the rabbits did not survive until adulthood, or when
they did, where not able to assume their reproductive functions, due
to the effects of the wine. But after a few generations, natural
selection had come to the rescue, allowing only those rabbits with
excellent livers as well as an overall tolerance to alcohol to
survive and reproduce.
The
rabbits made a sensation in Paris, and soon the whole of France was
breeding them, and exporting them all over Europe. Of course, this
massive wine rabbit population would lead to a few animals escaping
here and there, but at the time no one took particular note of this.
A few years later, however, the implications of wild wine rabbits
became clear.
At
the time they started reproducing in the wild, the wine rabbits had
acquired a taste for wine that would drive them to steal bottle from
cellars, and gnaw at wooden casks until they could drink the content.
Bordeaux and Bourgogne were soon overran by the creatures, and they
were declared a pest by King
Louis XII after one of
them had managed to infiltrate the royal cellars and drink the finest
cask of the King.
Today,
wine rabbits still exist in certain regions in France, and continue
to be considered a delicacy, although they can no longer be bred in
captivity (in the late twentieth century, they had been declared a
protected species). Only the wealthy can afford to buy the few
rabbits that can be shot each year. The rest of us will have to make
due with its less tender cousin.
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