Watership Down by Richard Adams

Watership Down is a novel written by Richard Adams. Although the animals in the story live in their natural environment, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language (Lapine), proverbs, poetry, and mythology. Evoking epic themes, the novel recounts the rabbits' odyssey as they escape the destruction of their warren to seek a place in which to establish a new home, encountering perils and temptations along the way.
The novel Watership Down takes its name from the rabbits' destination, Watership Down, a hill in the north of Hampshire, England, near the area where the author Richard Adams grew up. The story Watership Down is based on a collection of tales that Richard Adams told to his young children to pass the time on trips to the countryside. The novel Watership Down begins in a warren with Fiver, a young rabbit, who is considered a runt by the warren and yet is also a seer, receiving a frightening vision of his warren's imminent destruction. He and his brother Hazel, the main character of the novel who at this point is low in the rabbit hierarchy, attempt to persuade their chief rabbit of the danger facing them, but are ignored because of Fiver's inability to accurately describe this danger. They then set out on their own with a small band of rabbits to search for a new home, though with difficulty, as the warren's military caste—the Owsla—try to prevent them leaving. The traveling group of rabbits find themselves following the leadership of Hazel, a role reversal because of his previous position as an unimportant member of the warren. (Summary by Wikipedia)