Why does a rabbit’s nose wiggle?

Have you ever seen a rabbit wiggling its nose? There is a trail near my home that I love to hike and run on. One reason I love this area is that the dirt trail is hemmed in by rabbitbush—a bush rabbits love to take cover in. As I hike or run, cottontail rabbits run back and forth between the bushes. Some rabbits are more comfortable with my presence than others. They will stay put, perhaps hoping I do not see them, and wait for me to pass. If I get too close, they dart away to the safe refuge of a rabbitbrush. I love hearing their hopping noises and the rustling of bushes as they move around the hillside. Sometimes I pause to watch a rabbit as it sits contentedly off the trail. 

 

If you watch a rabbit long enough, you’ll likely notice its nose twitching. Do you think the rabbit’s nose is itchy, or it needs to sneeze? Not likely. Instead, a rabbit wiggles its nose to smell what’s going on around it. Rabbits are a much-loved food of many other animals, so God equipped them with super smelling power to sense danger as well as to find food. Their noses are full of something called olfactory sensors. These tiny sensors pick up smells and send information to the rabbit’s brain. We have these sensors, too—around five to six million of them. That might seem like a lot (and it is!), but rabbits have around 100 million of these sensors! They can detect a scent and identify it twenty times better than we can. When a rabbit twitches its nose, it allows more air (and smells in the air) to flow over the sensors, helping a rabbit gather more information about what’s around, and if it might need to dart away to safety.

 

Just as God engineered rabbits with super-sensor noses, God gives us a super sense, too. Of course, he’s given us senses like taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing. But we also have an amazing spiritual sense through the Holy Spirit. When we follow Jesus, God’s Spirit lives inside us. God’s Spirit helps us to sense danger and find what we need—just like a rabbit smelling a threatening predator or sniffing out a sweet flower.

 

If a rabbit didn’t wiggle its nose, it wouldn’t be putting all those olfactory sensors to the best use. By twitching its nose, a rabbit takes advantage of the amazing way God designed it to stay safe and find food.

 

Let’s not be like a rabbit forgetting to wiggle its nose. Instead, let’s spend time in prayer and God’s Word so we can become more sensitive to God’s Spirit and live in God’s ways.

"But the Helper will teach you everything and will cause you to remember all that I told you. This Helper is the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name." John 14:26

Dear God, help me to hear and listen to your Holy Spirit. Keep me from danger and help me follow your ways.

Fun Fact:

Rabbits were long thought to be rodents and were place into the rodent category. But in 1912, they were reclassified into a different order (category) called Lagomorpha because they have two special teeth right behind their front teeth.