Editing Lagomorpha (section)

== Biology ==
=== Digestion ===
[[File:Alaskan Hare Skeleton.jpg|thumb|Skeleton of [[Alaskan hare]] ([[Museum of Osteology]])]]
{{Main|Cecotrope}}
Easily digestible food is processed in the gastrointestinal tract and expelled as regular feces. But in order to get nutrients out of hard to digest fiber, lagomorphs ferment fiber in the cecum (in the GI tract) and then expel the contents as [[cecotrope]]s, which are reingested ([[cecotrope|cecotrophy]]).  The cecotropes are then absorbed in the small intestine to utilize the nutrients.<ref name="dummies 1">{{cite web |url=http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/exploring-a-rabbits-unique-digestive-system.html |title=Exploring a Rabbit's Unique Digestive System |work=Rabbits for Dummies |access-date=2013-08-14}}</ref>

Like rodents, they are not able to vomit.<ref>{{cite journal | pmc=3622671 | date=2013 | last1=Horn | first1=C. C. | last2=Kimball | first2=B. A. | last3=Wang | first3=H. | last4=Kaus | first4=J. | last5=Dienel | first5=S. | last6=Nagy | first6=A. | last7=Gathright | first7=G. R. | last8=Yates | first8=B. J. | last9=Andrews | first9=P. L. | title=Why Can't Rodents Vomit? A Comparative Behavioral, Anatomical, and Physiological Study | journal=PLOS ONE | volume=8 | issue=4 | pages=e60537 | doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0060537 | doi-access=free | pmid=23593236 | bibcode=2013PLoSO...860537H }}</ref>

=== Birth and early life ===
Many lagomorphs breed several times a year and produce large litters. This is particularly the case in species that live in underground, protective environments, such as burrows. The young of rabbits and pikas (called kits) are born after a short gestation period and the mother can become pregnant again almost immediately after giving birth. The mothers are able to leave these young safely and go off to feed, returning at intervals to feed them with their unusually rich milk. In some species, the mother only visits and feeds the litter once a day but the young grow rapidly and are usually weaned within a month. 

Hare young are called leverets. Adults have a strategy to prevent predators from tracking down their litter by following the adults' scent. They approach and depart from the nesting site in a series of immense bounds, sometimes moving at right angles to their previous direction.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Observer's Book of British Wild Animals |last=Burton |first=Maurice |year=1971 |publisher=Frederick Warne & Co. |isbn=9780723215035 |pages=109–112}}</ref> Each litter of hares have a small number of young and are born after a longer gestation period.<ref name="Britannialagomorph">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/animal/lagomorph |title=Lagomorph |author=Smith, Andrew T. |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=2020-09-08}}</ref>

=== Sociality and safety ===
Many species of lagomorphs, particularly the rabbits and the pikas, are gregarious and live in colonies, whereas hares are generally solitary species, although many hares travel and forage in groups of two, three, or four. Many rabbits and pikas rely on their burrows as places of safety when danger threatens, but hares rely on their long legs, great speed and jinking gait to escape from predators.