Cottontail rabbits are abundant in rural as well as urban areas. They are often one of just a few wild animals recognized by many city children. They are definitely part of nature, so let's learn a bit more about them.

DESCRIPTION

Eastern cottontail rabbits are easily identified by their cotton-puff tail. They have brown, black, and tan banded hairs which gives a tweedy look to their fur. Most people don't notice the orange patch on the back of their neck. Cottontails have large ears and large hind feet. All rabbits have large front teeth (incisors) with peg-like teeth located just behind them.

EATING HABITS

Summer food consists of green grasses, legumes, and various other herbs or forbs. Many city backyards provide these necessities. During winter periods with little snow rabbits eat grasses and other plants. Crops such as goldenrod, chickweed, clover, grass, alalfa, wheat, rye, beans, lettuce and fruits all provide food for rabbits. Some even resort to decayed animal flesh and insect pupa when other food is lacking.

Rabbits practice coprophagy. They rapidly consume large amounts of green plants during their dawn and sunset feeding times but plant material is hard to digest. Rabbits pass two types of feces (body wastes). One kind is soft and greenish in color. This type is eaten again (sometimes directly from the anus) so the rabbit can absorb all available nutrients from its food by digesting it twice. Vitamin C is absorbed during the second trip through the digestive system. The other kind of feces is the hard, dark colored pellets commonly seen.

FAMILY LIFE

Rabbits are very prolific if food is abundant. Courtship behavior include behaviors such as sitting and staring at each other, chasing, and wild leaping. Male rabbits will breed with any female they happen to meet but females only breed with one male.

Rabbits are born 28 days after mating. The female mates again shortly after giving birth. This can result in several families per summer. The female builds a nest by digging a shallow depression in the ground. She lines it with dead grasses and fur. A roof of dead grasses and fur covers the nest to protect it from rain and other weather conditions. These nests may be found in lawns, unmowed meadows, and under bushes.

Rabbits are born completely naked, blind and helpless. They nurse for 3 weeks after birth before going out on their own. Female cottontails nurse their litter just before dawn and just after sunset. They open the roof of the nest and lay over the top of it so the young can reach the mother's nipples for nursing. Then she covers the young up again to protect them from weather and predators.

Rabbits are most active at dawn and dusk. They spend the rest of the day resting in hollows called forms where overhead cover such as a bush protects the rabbit from birds of prey. Rabbits frequently use woodchuck, skunk or badger burrows during winter months and sunbathe in any nearby sunny spots.

Signs of rabbit presence in the winter include shrubs or seedlings cleanly nipped off at the snowline to about 24 inches above the snowline, piles of their round, dark colored droppings, and of course, their tracks. This practice of nipping off seedlings is one reason gardeners consider them a pest.

Rabbits make soft grunts when taking care of their young. They also talk by thumping their hind feet (remember Thumper in Bambi?). If attacked by a predator, they make a scream that has been compared to the cry of a human baby. Rabbits are very cautious animals. Their large eyes provide vision over a wide area its large ears pick up even faint sounds. If a strange sound is heard, the rabbit instantly stops all movement to avoid being noticed. If that fails, the rabbit runs fast, using its powerful hind legs to escape. They rapidly hop away in a zig-zag fashion which makes them harder to catch. A rabbit that cannot escape may fight, using its hind feet to make quick blows and deep scratches on the attacker.

Rabbits position their bodies in different ways to communicate with other rabbits. If the rabbit sits up or stands on its hind legs and holds its ears upright, it is showing an alert posture. When rabbits lay their ears down along their back and squat close to the ground, they are being submissive to another rabbit with a higher social status. Rabbits only defend home territories during breeding and nesting season. Then they may fight off other rabbits that come into their territories.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTS

Rabbits are primary consumers because they convert plants into meat as they eat. This makes them valuable to us because they also serve as prey for fox and other animals we use for fur. Many young hunters learn to hunt rabbit before moving up to other game.

Rabbits can become serious pests for any gardener, homeowner, nursery owner, or orchard owner. They destroy many vegetable plants, ornamental bushes and young trees including fruit trees. My carnations have never bloomed for me because rabbits eat the buds just before they open. Years with high rabbit populations often mean fewer flowers for the gardener.

Rabbits often injure shrubs or young trees by their winter feeding habits. If they to girdle (chew completely around) the shrub's main trunk or lower portion of the branches, nutrients are not able to travel to the upper branches and leaves thus killing the shrub. We have several choices. If living in rural areas, perhaps hunting rabbits will lower their population levels on your property. However, in the city, this option is not available. You may resort to traps (talk to your humane society or cooperative extension office) to live trap them and release in another area. Another option is to provide enough food that they don't need to eat your treasured flowers.

Since rabbits are among the few wildcritters that don't mind living in my townehouses, I am reluctant to do anything intended to harm them. Putting up with a little damage is much more humane and I enjoy spotting them in the early mornings or at dusk.