How did the European Rabbit get to different parts of the world, and why did they do so well in the new environments?

The European rabbit is grayish brown with mixed black, brown and reddish hairs on its back, light brown to beige fur on its underside, a beige ring around its eyes, and long black-tipped ears. It ranges from 13.5 to 20 inches (34-50 cm) in length and has a small bushy tail that is 1.5 to 3.75 inches (4-8 cm) long. It ranges in weight from 2.25 to 5.5 lbs (1-2.5 kg), so it's a deceptively small and cuddly-looking little pest wherever it has been introduced by humans. Although the European rabbit looks like a rodent in many ways (the perpetually-growing incisors come to mind), it actually belongs to the order of lagomorphs, along with hares and pikas. Its natural predators are carnivores and birds of prey, but it has also been widely hunted by humans for sport, food, and its particularly soft fur. But along with the other lagomorphs, the European rabbit is a famously prolific breeder, which has turned it into a serious pest in the various areas where it has been introduced, especially in Australia. Females become sexually mature at only 3 months of age and, unlike most mammals, ovulate whenever triggered by copulation, rather than cyclically. Therefore they can produce litters as much as 6 times a year, each litter ranging from 3 to 8 young (called kittens) after a gestation period of only 28 to 33 days. European rabbits are ravenous eaters and indulge in a diverse diet of grasses, roots, tree bark, leaves, grains, fruit, seeds, and buds. Since this diet is low in nutritional value and high in difficult-to-digest materials, they are known to reingest their feces to obtain extra nutritional value from the food the second time around. This double digestion process is called refection. European rabbits are social animals and live in large communities in dry areas, grassland, some forests and near human settlements. They dig burrows called warrens for protection and breeding and are mostly nocturnal. European rabbits have a lifespan of about 9 years.