Oolong (ウーロン) (July 28, 1994 — January 7, 2003), named after the oolong variety of tea, was the name of a domestic rabbit owned by photographer Hironori Akutagawa. The rabbit was famous for its ability to balance a variety of objects on his head.

Oolong was a well known Internet phenomenon, through a large number of photographs posted by Akutagawa on his website. The site featured “photo journeys” of the domestic rabbit traveling with his master through the house, yard, and other locations. The website became known to a wider audience when it was covered in 2001 by Syberpunk, a site which focuses on odd things in Japanese culture.

Oolong attracted attention because Akutagawa had trained the rabbit to balance objects on his head, an art called “Head Performance” by his owner. The first object balanced on Oolong’s head was a 35mm film canister on 25 May 1999. Soon, Akutagawa had the rabbit balance a variety of things on his head, including tea cups, bread, fruit, pancakes (actually dorayaki), and even a rabbit skull. Although most reactions on the Internet were positive, there were some complaints by people who believed the practice to be cruel to animals. In response, Akutagawa wrote in a message to website visitors: “Some visitors have written me e-mails, accusing me of being cruel to my rabbit and that I am abusing my pet. This was never my intention when I included numerous links to photographs, showing Oolong’s unique ability to hold objects on his head. This is not a site to mock rabbits, or demonstrate animal abuse. I’m sure you understand it if you see whole my site.”

Throughout the rabbit’s lifetime, the photographer continued to document his journeys through natural and not-so-natural environments as well as take hundreds of pictures of the rabbit balancing objects. Oolong has been noticed by the media, including the New York Times, and has become a widespread Internet meme. The best known of Oolong’s photographs was one that was widely used as an image macro called “Bunny Wafflehead”. Featuring Oolong balancing a dorayaki on his head, it had the tagline “I have no idea what you’re talking about… so here’s a bunny with a pancake on its head.”