Wagners Wabbit

[graham]

You've got to admit these Germans have some amazing creations !!!

Graham

[ken_behrendt]

Graham...

Interesting picture, but I've noticed several inconsistencies with it.

First, the animal in the photo is more technically referred to a "hare" and not a "rabbit" (also note that Bugs Bunny is also a hare, and not really a "wabbit"). There is a difference. On a rabbit, the ears are shorter than the head and on a hare, they are longer than the head.

A few years ago I owned a pet hare. I got him from a guy in north NJ who raised animals for use in laboratory experiments. He was a baby albino New Zealand hare when I got him. Snow white in color and with pink eyes.

As I raised him on a diet of vitamin and mineral enriched rodent chow, he quickly grew until, standing on his hine legs, he was about two feet tall and attained a body weight of about 12 lbs. Surprisingly, I found him to be quite intelligent and he would come when called and quickly learned how to use a litter box just as a cat would. Whenever he got bored with his room (I did not keep him in a cage), he would hippity-hop out to the living room and jump up onto someone's lap for attention. He loved being petted between his long ears or having his cheeks massaged. His teeth were amazing. I once saw him chew his way through a piece of wood like it was nothing. Yet, he never bit anybody.

Sadly, he only lived about 6.5 years and then he fell ill to a neurological condition common to rodents that caused a slow creeping paralysis of his limbs to the point where he became bedridden and required constant attention. In that state he only lasted about three months. His death caused so much depression around here that I vowed he would be my last pet...

Anyway, the "rabbit" in the photo you posted can not have weighed only 17 lbs. That has got to be a misprint. I'd estimate his body weight at closer to 50 lbs!


ken

[graham]

I agree Ken, that wabbit or hare must weigh much more than 17lb . We have a fat cat here in our house , she weighs 15lbs and is not even half the size of Wagners wabbit.

As far as your decision to avoid the heartache of losing a pet by not getting another is understandable , I know it too well.
All living creatures must die one day , there's just no way around it.

Graham

[jim_mich]

The picture was taken with the camera up close to the Wabbit making it look much bigger with the owner in the background looking much smaller. Then the picture is cropped so you have very little image available to judge perspective. Note how big the man's elbow is and how very big the Wabbit's hind feet are. This is a cheap camera trick to make a very large rabbit look much larger.

[ken_behrendt]

Jim...

I have to disagree with your analysis. I know it's a close up photo, but I think that what you are calling the man's elbow is, in reality, his shoulder and what you think is his wrist is actually his elbow. I've attached a section of the image below with the man's body parts labeled according to what I think they are.


ken

[AgingYoung]

There is a huge disparity in the size of the two rabbit feet. Either that rabbit is severely deformed or there's some unique camera angle causing that. I think the sucker is a stuffed bunny; it's not real.

Gene

ps edit: here's an interesting wrinkle. The rabbit could be real and being held by a vertical challenged person (a midget).

ps edit II: Ken, if you think that's the midget's elbow it's a good thing you aren't an orthopedic surgeon.

ps edit III: I think we should take up a collection and buy Ken a new pair of glasses.


www.nypost.com

February 3, 2006 -- What a wabbit!

German Giant, one of the biggest bunnies on the face of the planet, tips the scales at 17 pounds — almost seven pounds more than the average rabbit of his breed.

And heÂ’s still growing, according to German breeder Hans Wagner (above), whose hair-raising angora hare was the highlight of a recent rabbit fair in Berlin.

On all paws, German Giant, named for the worldÂ’s largest rabbit breed, stands 17 inches tall. And standing on his hind feet, heÂ’s more than three feet tall.

To find out how unusual WagnerÂ’s wabbit is, The Post contacted Six Bells Rabbitry in Arvada...

I guess it's not only a real bunny but it's huge!

[ken_behrendt]

Gene wrote:

Ken, if you think that's the midget's elbow it's a good thing you aren't an orthopedic surgeon.

I think your eyes have been tricked into thinking that what I am calling the man's elbow is his wrist due to how thin it appears. But, if you study the picture carefully, you'll notice that the hare's fur partially overlaps and covers the man's elbow thus making it appear to be as thin as his wrist might be.

No, I still consider this photo to be genuine...


ken

[Michael]

:) Ken, there is no way that what is really the mans elbow is a shoulder. Look at the contours of the sweater everywhere and the angle of the mans face. His head is resting back on his shoulder.

[ken_behrendt]

Michael...

I think that the zig-zag portion of his sweater is covering his shoulder and that he has his head severly twisted to his right side to face the camera. The area of his skin that is exposed by the hare is not his wrist, but, rather, his elbow obscured by part of the hare's fur.


ken

[jim_mich]

Ken definitely needs glasses!

What ken calls an elbow is very clearly the man's wrist. You can see the wrist bones. Looking at the bottom of the picture you can plainly see his other hand supporting the bottom of the rabbit, and a wristwatch on that wrist. In the background is a ceiling. The photographer squatted down up close and aimed the camera upward.

[Wheeler]

Fun and real
I think it is a real photo, but someone had it zoomed a bit.
I noticed 15-16 points of equal/opposite reactions of stress
in the photo. (circles in red)

These points if you look at the photo without the circles, show that
the person holding the what I think is a 117pound rabbit has all
the stress and relief forces that would cause real forces.

I think Ken is correct too, because the man holding the rabbit has his
arm buried in the rabbits folds of hair and fat.
You can hide your whole hand under the arm pit of a large normal size rabbit, so this guy is not only holding, but slightly lifting.
The arm gets mostly buried in meat and hair.

[graham]

It very well may be that Herr Wagner is a midget. Or perhaps we should refer to him as a widget.
A widget with a wabbit.

Graham

[ken_behrendt]

Graham...

No, I do not think the man is a midget. I think that is just a very large hare (assuming, of course, that the photo has not been "morphed" to make the hare appear much larger than the man).

This picture tends to confuse the eye because, as Jim noted, it is shot from the level of the man's waist or thereabouts and, since the camera lens is so close to the subjects, there is an added distortion of perspective that makes nearer object seem disproportionately larger than they should be compared to objects slightly farther from the lens (I think this is sometimes called the "fisheye effect" in photography).

Another factor that adds to the confusion is that, apparently, when the photo was taken, the hare was looking directly to the man's right. In order for the man to also be facing the camera, he was required to turn his head almost 90° to his right.

I tried an experiment and picked up a large pillow that was approximately the same size (but not weight, thank heaven) as the hare and found that I could duplicate the man's posture in the photo. When I did this, my right elbow, and NOT my wrist, appeared to be where the end of the man's short sleeve ends in the photo. And this is the part of his body I interpret as being his elbow.


Jim wrote:

What ken calls an elbow is very clearly the man's wrist. You can see the wrist bones.

What you think are his wrist bones are really the muscles that attach his right forearm to the bone in his upper arm. I do not think they are bones, but, rather, just muscles flexing under his skin as he strains to hold the hefty hare for the photo.


Below I've attached another analysis of the photo. This time, however, I've drawn in some lines to represent the various bones in the man's body and their approximate positions and orientations as he struggles with the hare. Particularly note the white line segments that correspond to the bones in his right arm.

I hope this makes the matter clearer...


ken

[Joel Wright]

I'd like to add that these rabbits are delightful baked in their own juices with carrots and peas.When I lived in West Germany I had many a pleasurable meal of roast rabbit.There was a rabbit farm very close to where I lived,so they were on the menu quite often.

[fAtnhapy]

Ever find an elbow in the roast rabbit? Or was it a wrist?
fAt