Rabbit

In 1807 Napoleon held a rabbit hunt for the Treaty of Tilsit. His aide Berthier gathered tame farm rabbits, not wild ones, and—used to being fed by people—they charged at Napoleon instead of fleeing. Swarmed, with rabbits climbing his legs, the emperor fled the field.

During Japan's 1,200-year meat-eating ban, people devised creative loopholes. They classified rabbits as birds by calling their ears "wings," dubbed wild boar "mountain whale" to pass it off as fish, and claimed ducks were fish because they had webbed feet.

In 1859, a British settler in Australia released 24 rabbits into the wild. With no predators and mild winters, they multiplied into billions. Australia tried continent-spanning fences, foxes, poison, disease, and the military—all failed. The rabbit war continues to this day.

The Chinese zodiac animals vary by country. What is a dragon in Korea is a seagull in India, a whale in Iran, and a snail in Central Asia. In Vietnam, the "rabbit" position is held by a cat.