The Cottontail Rabbit
WHAT WETLANDS PARK RESIDENT TAKES THE “BUNNY hOP” VERY SERIOUSLY?
Danger! Freeze! Now run for cover, fast!
Life for resident desert cottontail rabbits at Clark County Wetlands Park is like life for cottontails in every place where they live – one long narrow escape! Cottontails are high on the list of prey items for predators of many species, including snakes, foxes and coyotes, bobcats, weasels, and hawks and owls. They are considered game animals and are hunted by people for their meat and for their soft fur. No wonder most “baby bunnies” are killed by some predator within their first year.
Still, desert cottontails hold their own in habitats across the western United States, from eastern Montana and Texas all the way to the Pacific Ocean and south into northern Mexico. They are common and frequently seen from Park trails (like our photo model, out and about just after 8:00 a.m. on a sunny September day). Favored habitats include upland desert, sagebrush, grassland, shrubland, riparian areas, and pinyon-juniper forest. One essential for these rabbits is thick brush, where they rest in hiding places during the day, coming out to forage at night.
Each rabbit lives on a small home range of only about a 400-yard radius, where it knows every hiding place, pathway, and food source. Cottontail survival skills include good eyesight and hearing, and the ability, like any good sprinter, to get “off the mark” quickly. Their high reproductive rate helps, too. Female cottontails begin to breed at only three months old and raise multiple litters in a year. Cottontails are true rabbits, not hares, so their babies are born blind, naked, and helpless. The young leave the nest very quickly, at only two weeks old, ensuring a constant supply of rabbits in the habitat.
A startled cottontail caught in the open will often freeze in place, hoping to go unnoticed. If the danger comes closer, the rabbit explodes into twisting, turning flight toward the closest cover, white powderpuff tail flashing. Our photo model froze just long enough for his portrait to be snapped, then dove into the tunnel visible just behind the tips of his ears in the nearby stand of dead saltbush. A couple of seconds, and he was gone from view and safe, at least for the moment!
Cottontails feed on green plants, including grasses, sedges, mesquite leaves and seedpods, barks, juicy pads from prickly pear cactus, and twigs from shrubs. They drink only rarely, getting needed moisture from the plants they eat. When eating, they will often use their noses to turn a food item repeatedly over and over again, finding the cleanest parts before they begin to eat. They may also stand on their hind legs and use a front foot to pull down a branch and reach leaves growing above their heads. At the Park, clumps of honey mesquite trees may be “trimmed” of leaves as high above the ground as hungry cottontails can reach!
Watch ahead of you and on both sides of the trail as you walk at the Park. Cottontails frozen in place are often not easy to see, with their soft mixed gray coats blending into the background, but if you get too close for comfort, the flash of the white tail as the rabbit flees will give you a quick look!
Narrative and photo by Chris Leavitt, President
Please enjoy these YouTube videos!
Desert Cottontail Rabbits
MyBackyardBirding 2:21
Sylvilagus audubonii DESERT COTTONTAILS feeding 3038265
Rob Curtis/The Early Birder 0:55
Desert Cottontail(Sylvilagus audubonii)
Providence Mtns SRA the Home of Mitchell Caverns 0:58
Female adult desert cotton tail rabbit, Sylvilagus audubonii, gathering nesting materials
Charles Peden 1:16