Types of Memory
Short-term memory
Is also known as primary memory, and is where a limited amount of information can be held for a short period of time. It is accessible as ideas and decisions.
Rabbits apparently have a short-term memory that lasts around 5 minutes.
Working memory
Are the actions taken by the short-term memory. For example, remembering small calculated results of a larger arithmetic problem without paper.
There is no current evidence of working memory with rabbits.
Long-term memory
Is where the brain takes short-term memories and stores it for long lasting effect. For example, remembering a birthday, a time and date for a job interview, or something that happened many years ago.
Rabbits can retain information for longer periods, especially if it has an emotional connection.
Understanding Your Bunny’s Memory
When you get a young rabbit, it comes with long term memories because it has an emotional bond with its siblings, its nest, its mother. It will also have memories of the human that looked after it, whether it was held, patted and loved, or anything else. These memories set the bunny up for it’s future, and can also help shape it’s personality.
Once you adopt the bunny, it learns about the place it lives, the boundaries, the new family members, pets, toys, litter box, food times. These things only turn into long-term memories if they are part of a routine and they occur regularly and frequently in the start until the bunny becomes comfortable with the changes.
These memories are created when the bunny attaches a strong emotion or opinion about it.
Rabbits who emotionally attach memories, can hold onto the memories for a long time, and they can be recalled when they feel that emotion again even if it may not be the same situation. For example, if you accidentally hurt your bunny’s foot, it remembers the situation because of the emotion it feels. Then months later, if you are playing with your bunny, and it hurts its foot, it remembers the previous incident and it will reject you and you wont know why. They remember it because they don’t want to be hurt again in the same situation. The same applies with happy experiences.
Things your bunny remembers
Bunnies have a 54-60 day memory, which means if something happens once, they will forget it after 2 months, or if something happens each day for 2 months they will remember it forever.
People often ask: “Will my bunny remember me when I get back from a 2 week holiday?” Yes they will, they would also remember you if you came home after two months, because you have been around in their life for multiple days before you went on holidays.
Positive and Negative Emotions
Rabbits remember both positive and negative experiences and pass them to long-term memory. It’s important to not promote negative emotions in situations because those will always last longer because they are more easily reinforced than positive ones. Bunnies are prey animals and are scared of everything, so they automatically have negative emotional connections to many situations.
It is important for you as their owner to stop them feeling negative emotions. If your rabbit is scared, stressed or grumpy for example, you have to change the subject and not let it feel those emotions for a long time. Give it a toy, some food or something to take it’s mind off it.
Location
Bunnies remember locations, as well as the emotions and experiences that happened at those locations. Bunnies are prey animals and have survival instincts. They have to learn about their surroundings and to do that, they will explore every inch of their pen. They will memorise how many hops it takes to go from one side to the other, just in case they have to flee. They will remember where the water dish is, where food is, and how high the fence is.
Bunnies won’t want to leave their pen, or yard. But if they do, they wont necessarily know their way home. Sometimes they can smell their way home because their belongings will smell a particular way.
Tricks and Training
Bunnies can remember tricks because they connect the experience to something else, not because they are remembering the trick. It’s important to let them make a positive connection to each trick. The positive connection could be the treat at the end because it gives them pleasant feelings in their brains.
Rabbits remember through repetition, patterns and numbers. Some people try to dispute this, and say they are incapable of counting, but why then can a rabbit recognise if an alarm rings three times to denote food, they grow excited by the third chime? They may not be able to count like humans, but they can recognise patterns.
People
Bunnies remember their family. Even if they are humans. They can remember their special-human, for a long time if they disappear for a while. For example, if you have to go on a trip for a few weeks, your bunny will remember you when you get back (just make sure you smell the same as what they are used to before you greet them). The bunny will remember you if their routine stays the same. The bunny will remember you if their routine changes.
H Davis and JA Gibson published an article Can rabbits tell humans apart?: Discrimination of individual humans and its implications for animal research through the National Library of Medicine which studied whether rabbits can recognise their owner compared to unfamiliar people. Turns out they can. They are just unsure how they do it. Some scientists think it is through scent, but others think its facial recognition because bunnies can read facial expressions.
Bunnies can detect and respond to human moods. Once a rabbit learns your facial expressions they will commit it to memory.
Day-to-day life
Bunnies will cast situations that they have been exposed frequently into long-term memory. For example, they get their piece of banana for breakfast, they are taken outside for play-time, they are brought back inside in the afternoon, they are given their dinner, play-time, pellets then bed. They are more likely to put routines into long-term memory, because it takes less brain power to think about. They learn to expect certain things because it is normal life.
They will attach emotions to these situations, and if they are positive emotions, the bunny will want to repeat it, they will even look forward to those situations.
Do they remember their names?
Bunnies can remember their names and they do react to it. They also remember their new names if they are re-homed and have a brand new routine and location. They start to remember their name if they have positive reinforcement accompanying it, for example, pats or food.
Do they remember their mother?
Some evidence suggests they don’t, because there is no real need to. When a mother rabbit gives birth, she will move away from the babies, only to return to feed them once a day. That is because she doesn’t want predators to find them. It takes about 5 minutes to feed the babies and then she will move away again. There is not much time for the babies to bond with their mother and once they are weaned at 6 weeks, they start living their own lives.
Other evidence points to yes. Especially if they still live with their mother as a bonded family until they are weaned at 5-6 weeks old. It has been witnessed that both parents play an important role in a young bunny’s life.
The true bunny family is one that the mother goes away for the day to feed, and scientists believe she does that to protect the babies, but they are unsure about why she really goes away. The father is left at home because he is lazy, cares for the babies, cleans them, grooms them, sings to them (with whistles, purring and low-level honks), teaches them how to care for themselves. Bunnies have a soft, warm, loving family, and they miss out on this in domestic situations.
Do they remember their siblings?
Yes, and no. Rabbit kittens will bond with siblings because it’s strength in numbers when they are young. When they hit puberty, and hormones kick in, the situation can change. Researchers believe that in the wild, male rabbits are kicked out of the nest and have to battle it out alone or join a bachelor colony. Females usually stay home to breed.
In domestic situations, it is unlikely that rabbits will come across their siblings again after a long time. If they do, they may recognise the sibling and be instantly bonded, they might even fight if they don’t recognise one another.
Do they remember their deceased friends?
Yes. Forever.
They will mourn the loss of a friend. They can even die from a broken heart. If a bunny suddenly disappears and never comes back they will fret and worry. Even if a new bunny comes into their life, and that bunny disappears (goes to the vet for a check-up), the bunny will look for the new bunny and be relieved when they return.
When a friend dies, its a good idea to leave the body in the pen so the bunny can say goodbye. Your bunny may sniff, nuzzle or lick the body. They might even binky or lay down next to them. This is the equivalent of a wake.
Your bunny can become depressed and withdrawn, or become destructive and want attention. They have emotions, this is a very emotional time and they will remember situations and because of this they are unlikely going to never forget their lost companion. These feelings can impact the acceptance of a new friend.
Don’t force a bunny to bond with a new friend, because they are remembering the good ol’ times with the lost companion, and comparing it to the new times with the new one.
Lost bunnies memories will always live on.