Rabbit

"What part of ‘I'm not your lunch’ do you not understand? I already gave you the key! Put me down!"

- Rabbit

Rabbits are small, fast, and furry mammals with long ears and large hind paws. In the Mario franchise, they often hold important items and tend to flee if approached.

Super Mario 64
In Super Mario 64, a yellow rabbit named MIPS can be found in the basement of the Mushroom Castle. If caught, he will give Mario a secret Power Star. MIPS is found twice in the game: the first time after Mario collects 15 Power Stars, and the second time after 50 Power Stars.

Super Mario 64 DS
In Super Mario 64 DS, generic rabbits are prominent throughout Peach's Castle, both indoors and outdoors. They replace MIPS from the original game. Each character has their own designated rabbits, which only appear when the player is controlling that character. The rabbits for each character can be distinguished by color: yellow for Yoshi, pink for Mario, green for Luigi, and orange for Wario. The rabbits only start to appear when the player's character talks to the Toad in the Rec Room. If a rabbit it caught for the first time, it begs to be released and gives a key to the character, which unlocks a minigame for the Rec Room. If the character catches the same rabbit again, it begs to be released and tells them that they already obtained its key. Two of Mario's, one of Wario's, and one of Yoshi's rabbits are found in the same locations that MIPS appears in the original Super Mario 64. In the manual, a screenshot of an off-pink rabbit with black details appears, likely taken during a pre-release revision. Due to the mini-games not being present, these rabbits do not appear in the South Korean version of the game.

Special glowing rabbits need to be caught to unlock a white door in the character-selection room, behind which is a secret Power Star. They will randomly appear only after the player has collected 50 Power Stars in place of ordinary ones that have been caught. Any character can catch them but only after they have already caught the regularly colored rabbit in that location at least once. After the player catches eight of these rabbits, they will no longer appear.

In addition to these rabbits, Yoshi must find a rabbit with the key to Peach's Castle at the start of the game, which is located in the hedge maze.

Super Mario 3D World / Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
Although the rabbits do not appear in Super Mario 3D Land, they appear again in its sequel Super Mario 3D World and its Nintendo Switch port Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, where they can again be chased and caught to receive prizes. Normal rabbits hold power-ups and coins, but rabbits surrounded by a green light have a Green Star. Larger variations known as Mega Rabbits also appear and will give Mega Mushrooms or Green Stars to the players when caught. Rabbits can be held in place with the GamePad, allowing the player to catch them more easily. In the Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, rabbits can run around on the sea when being chased by Mario.

Super Mario Odyssey
In Super Mario Odyssey, gray and white rabbits wearing top hats can be found in a few kingdoms, such as the Wooded Kingdom and the Lake Kingdom. They will hop away if approached; attacking them with Cappy will slow them down, and running into them will cause it to hand over a Power Moon. These rabbits resemble the ones from Super Mario 64 DS and Super Mario 3D World in terms of body structure and proportion, as well as general purpose. Most kingdoms only feature one of these rabbits, if any; Bowser's Kingdom is an exception, with two; however, the second rabbit only offers coins when captured. After hitting the Moon Rock in the Sand Kingdom, three will appear there, with two giving varying amounts of coins and the third giving the Power Moon; this one is faster than most and has a wider range, and is probably intended to be caught using Jaxi.

Many rabbits can also be found on the Dark Side of the Moon, in a location known as Rabbit Ridge. These rabbits wear top hats, and are entirely white. These rabbits also do not run if approached. They are ruled over by Madame Broode, an enormously-obese anthropomorphic rabbit, who is accompanied by her minions, the Broodals. It should also be noted that these rabbits' hats cannot be removed, possibly to prevent Mario from potentially capturing them.

Mario Party Advance
In Mario Party Advance, Rabbits appear in the minigame Grabbit, in which the player must catch a certain amount of them with the given time limit. They also appear as toys in the minigame Bunny Belt, where the player needs to press the buttons in the right order to make a bunny toy. If they press in the wrong order, the toy will have a rat's body or a pig's snout.

Mario Party: Island Tour
In Mario Party: Island Tour, grey and gold Rabbits appear in the minigame Hare Today. In this minigame, the player must catch rabbits and place them within an enclosure. Regular Rabbits are worth one point, while Gold Rabbits are worth three points.

Mario Tennis Aces
Rabbits using their appearance from Super Mario 3D World appear in Mario Tennis Aces on the sides of the Piranha Plant Forest court.

Luigi's Mansion 3
In Luigi's Mansion 3, there is a room in Twisted Suites that contains a cage with a key in it. Attempting to grab the key will summon several purple Spirit Balls that turn the key into a golden rabbit that runs away from the player if they move too close. To capture it, Luigi or Gooigi must suck it up with the Poltergust G-00, then one of them must shine their Dark-Light Device at it, releasing the purple Spirit Balls within it. They then need to vacuum up the purple Spirit Balls and the golden rabbit will turn back into a collectible key.