Flemish Giant

In the 19th century, opinions were passionate about whether it came from America, or more specifically from Patagonia, or simply from Europe. Demusset, in the Cours d'Agriculture of abbé Rozier (1809) noted the arrival of the American rabbit in Europe. This was the famous Patagonian rabbit, which some wanted to make the ancestor of the Flemish Giant. As for Darwin, in his famous work On the Variation of Animals and Plants, he reports that according to Aldrovandi (1637), around 1555 in Verona, rabbits four times larger than ordinary ones were being raised according to P. Valerianus. Professor Cornevin, who takes up this assertion in his Traité de zootechnie (1895), concludes: "This breed is surely of European origin, because in 1555, the New World had very few rabbits." Eugène Meslay (1900) settles in favor of European origin, and more precisely Flemish, which is the opinion of English authors and of course Belgian ones. Belgian rabbit specialists make the Flemish Giant descend from the Steenkonijn, an agouti rabbit close to the French wild rabbit, and Louis Van Der Snickt insisted in his writings on the Ghent tradition which had been exploiting this rabbit on a large scale for years. The outskirts of Ghent were indeed a cradle of the breed. Many enthusiasts had founded breeding societies, whose names: "The Fearless," "The Sunday Brothers," "The Maid of Ghent," "Young Merchants," testify to a passionate atmosphere that helped invigorate this breeding. These societies had fixed meeting days to which all members had to attend under penalty of a fine. They organized weight competitions, individual and by group, and of course presentations which later became exhibitions. The original Ghent standard dates back to 1895. It was developed on November 10 at a competition. Many expressions of this standard still appear in the current Belgian standard. In France, the French Federation of Rabbit Breeding recognized the standard on December 10, 1919, referring to the original Belgian standard. In conclusion, the Flemish Giant owes its size and weight to the result of strong selective pressure, and contrary to what some have claimed, is not the result of a cross with the mara.

The Flemish Giant is a very large rabbit. Its weight can reach 10 kg but is generally between 6.5 to 8 kg. It has a large body, wide and deep. Viewed from above it has the shape of a rectangle. It has powerful musculature with strong legs. Its ears are large, thick, carried erect, approximately 20 cm in length. It exists in ten recognized color varieties: wild gray, hare gray, dark gray, iron gray, black, blue, blue-gray, wild blue-gray, hare color and yellow color. The French standard requires the following characteristics:

The Flemish Giant is a very large rabbit. Its weight can reach 10 kg but is generally between 6.5 to 8 kg. It has a large body, wide and deep. Viewed from above it has the shape of a rectangle. It has powerful musculature with strong legs. Its ears are large, thick, carried erect, approximately 20 cm in length. It exists in ten recognized color varieties: wild gray, hare gray, dark gray, iron gray, black, blue, blue-gray, wild blue-gray, hare color and yellow color. The French standard requires the following characteristics: