How did rabbit domestication develop over a long period?

The domestication of the European rabbit was not a single event but a gradual process spanning hundreds or thousands of years, driven by a combination of natural and human factors.1

Genetic analysis suggests that domesticated rabbits and their wild counterparts in France became isolated between 17,700 and 12,200 years ago, a period coinciding with the retreat of continental ice sheets in southwestern Europe. While a persistent legend claims that 6th-century monks domesticated rabbits to consume during Lent, this is historically inaccurate.1

The earliest reliable record of rabbits being kept as livestock appears in the 1st century BCE writings of the Roman author Marcus Terentius Varro. Archaeological evidence also indicates that humans transported rabbits to various Mediterranean islands as early as the 14th century BCE. Ultimately, the transition from wild populations to domestic strains resulted from long-term interactions rather than a discrete moment of domestication.1