Miss Lisa and I really like to hunt and eat cottontails. A lot of our furbearers rely pretty heavily on lagomorphs to keep their own populations healthy. Overall, rabbits/hares are important in our ecosystems. Here's some pictures I have from over the years. I didn't have any good photos of pikas or pygmy rabbits, but here's a few others.

Whitetail jackrabbit. These guys get up to ten pounds. They turn white in winter, causing a lot of people to mistakenly call them snowshoe hares.



Blacktail jackrabbit. These rabbits have huge ears to dissipate heat in the summertime. Major coyote food in some places.



Miss Lisa after a successful morning cottontail hunt.



A summertime snowshoe hare. Snowshoes run the lynx cycles in Alaska.



Tiny little cottontail leverette. I've seen them taken by all sorts of raptors and one's this size are used extensively by rattlesnakes.

Great pictures.

I too love hunting cottontails here in WI farm country. Stalking on a sunny morning after a fresh snowfall is real fun.

Cottontails are one of my favorite wild game.Both to hunt and eat.We run them with Beagles here.

I love rabbits. Like them as a pet, and as meat providers.

Here are my rabbits ! They showed up one day a couple years ago , had babies . They are semi wild. I don't know who had rabbits , but obviously someone down the road must. They like my place. I give them treats and pet them. MY excuse to have them stay, is that if I ever need meat, I'll have them to provide that. That's my excuse, anyway

Fun subject, Jack. Thank you.

Sharon -

Your post with the domestic rabbit photos sadly reminds me of Lennie in Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men". He just couldn't help himself petting (and consequently killing) mice, puppy's , and rabbits. Sad reading...

BTW, real nice artwork again, girl!

Jack

But…but….petting my rabbits , or puppies, is good for them ! Even wild things love petting, when they realize that

I know…I’d make a bad biologist that way. I just can’t not touch , when I see it is ok to do so. I’ve always been this way. Maybe it’s the artist in me, that needs to enjoy, learn and experience such fur textures and softness ….

Visiting a game farm in BC, years ago, I even reached through the wire to pet two dingos ! They closed their eyes and leaned against the wire and loved me petting them ….I did the same to a giant Eland antelope . He loved his neck and ears scratched so much , he followed me across the whole length of his fenced pasture. Like a tame cow.

I don’t like sad stories, good thing I didn’t read that one , Jack

We need Lennie in Congress !


Jack: on rattlesnakes hunting the cottontails............do the snakes just wait in ambush and hope that a bunny happens to pass by or do they stalk them ? Can a snake "hope" ?

Neither, Sir Ken. The rattlers gather greens and carrots, and carefully line a pathway with it. Then await in a hiding place to ambush the bunny as it follows the carrot trail. Hence....wabbit stew, with greens and carrots.

Love that airborne snow shoe..


We had rabbits for many years. Most were in pens. Too many predators around here for them to run loose for very long.

I'll be darned ! Who Knew ?

" Be vewy, vewy quiet".......

Thanks, Bob. That was in FFG , an article on Saluki hounds chasing hares.

I snared hundreds of them as a kid, I used braided picture cord, I could get $1.00 for snowshoe hares and $1.50 for cottontails, dressed out!
Fun times!

white17 -

I like Sharon's answer better than mine...

I suspect the rattlesnakes are confronting (and thus eating) the leverettes in warrens where they have them trapped. Every year, my dogs bring in a couple that they've found in the "yard". If they can easily get 'em, the snakes must have a real easy time of it.

Its a long story but I "inherited" a couple of Rabbitts that looked just like Sharon's in the 3rd and 4th picture. I had them for a year and all of a sudden the Buck got SUPER aggressive. He would bite you every time you walked away or sat down outside. He was sneaky too and sometimes I didn't even realize he had snuck up behind me in the lawn chair and them BAM! He bit through my leather work boot more than once.

If they bit me, Wabbit stew tomorrow!

Our cottontail population peaked about seven or eight years ago. I could walk across the yard and see half a dozen or more when it was just getting light. They had a die off and so far have never recovered. I have seen one since the die off. I feel the slow recovery is due to them being in small pockets miles apart. I had a good number of whitetail jacks showing up to eat the grain I was putting out for the Hungarian Partridge last winter. I could often see four or five feeding at once last winter.

I have quite a few cottontails here at my place and have for the last 3-4 years. I don't mind having them around. Once in a while one will start girdling my apple trees and then the 22 mag takes them to Bunny Heaven. I am totally shocked at the amount of Red Acorns they eat. They are under my big oak every morning and evening and I have seen as many as 6 at a time eating them.

Mark -

At least in our country, the cottontails are not cyclic. That is, their numbers don't cycle on a regular basis. The numbers go through wild swings, 1 or 2 in year 1, then 400 in year 2, 0 in year 3 and 4, 25 in year 6, etc. Rather than severe winters or predators, they seem to fluctuate due to moisture. Good rain and snowpack = high bunny numbers. Drought = no cottontails.

Jack

160, that buck was just jealous of you being near his girls. He also may have promised the girls that you would take everyone up in the plane for a nice ride and tour. You must have forgotten .

My boyz , the ones I've had so far, have all been very mild. I even caught one, a solid black, and kept him detained in custody in a cage for a couple of days, because he was a tween and chasing his brother around, trying to run him off. Despite being grabbed and in a cage, he calmed right down. I would pet him too , even ruffle his fur on his back sometimes, like you'd do to a dog when they want to play. He was obviously pouting, watching his brother happily follow Diva ( the doe) all over the estate in freedom.

I let him go after that, hoping his detained custody , let out on bail of 12 carrots, would show a transformed rabbit who would be appreciative and calm around his brother. Not to be. He started right up again , and after some days, managed to chase his brother away. I wasn't happy. I don't want to invest in a coop and such , if I ever did that I'd just have my chooks again.

These rabbits generally do well in a semi wild state and are very alert, acting just as wild rabbits do in behavior. The only difference is when they are around me. They come running when I call them, and sit with me as I feed them treats and pet them. It's a hoot watching them do zoomies and twist in the air, jumping and kicking all over the place in the morning.

I'll just say....any predators have met swift, deft demise . I've kept them thinned out fairly well. I have no pets and these wabbits are, honestly, fun for me. I have a bag of pellets for them and provide water. They live in tunnels under my fir trees and spruces and fair well in winter temps.

So far, 160, that's my action on the hacienda . Makes for nice memories and photos.

I cant quite picture you picking one up and petting it,,,then WACK rabbit chop to the back of the head,,then in the skillet!

Upstate, that was good , lol

That's what I do tell myself , if times get hard, and I need some food...that's my story and I'm stickin to it !

Pet, pet pet......

That is why I don't shoot the Grouse in the apple trees here at the house. It isn't because I would rather watch them instead of shoot them, it is because they are an emergency food source.............

Food on the hoof,,so to speak.

Is Miss Lisa's rabbit Nuttal's cottontail not what everyone down past over the 100 meridian calls cotton tails -Eastern variety

auto-correct

my daughter had a lion's mane, rabbit, it was loose to run and mate with cotton tails, which it did right in front of the window, but it would get just covered in fleas it was terrible, we would dust it but in two weeks it would be covered in fleas again, Sharon do yours get fleas.

never saw any mix breeds , have you?

Ha, North50, I saw that “auto correction “ !

TD, lions mane rabbits are neat little things. I really like Rex rabbits, their fur is like velvet.

Mine aren’t Rex, not sure what breed or cross they are. They just showed up from somewhere down the road , there’s only about a handful of neighbors, all a good distance apart, so these first ones had traveled a distance before they found their paradise, my place …

They all become so tame with me, I can pet them, look in their fur to the skin, even inspect the inside of their ears. They are as clean as can be. I’ve spent time doing this every so often . I haven’t seen one flea, not one tick. Seriously. I do keep a clean estate, ground squirrels and tree squirrels are kept out , every one I see. Those can spread fleas , but they never have chance to live here. So that helps my rabbits. I feel those things would also kill baby rabbits that mine produce, and I don’t allow that nonsense, either .

I always wondered if these would cross with my snowshoe hares that also travel in here. Time will tell , I suppose.

All I know is that I’m having fun, petting my rabbits. And watching how fast they can bolt from standstill, how they make me smile when they do zoomies in circles around the place.

sounds great

It is, TD, I am really having fun with these "tribbles" ( trekkies get that name )

I and my grandkids would love to have rabbits loose, but the predators would have them in a day or two.

Yes that's the worry. I too have taken my share of predators out of the equation. I won't take no mess. I feel bad about this, that my rabbits have to be every bit as wild and fast to survive. Along with the winters.

I just don't want to go to the effort, time and expense, to have built a "coop" set up for them, with a wire run , windows, heat , etc. This has been a nice surprise for me since they've been here. If I went to the expense to keep them contained, I may as well have my chooks again.

They really seem to do well in a semi wild state here. With my help and my firepower. I just take things as they come with this.

Thanks for all the excellent picture and artwork (Sharon) Plus the exchange of info .Rabbits are e a prolific prey species in the predator/prey food chain .And when it comes to the population of rabbits cover is the number 1 reason for the quantity of them being available there for the predators to catch and eat .Every predator animal that is able to catch a rabbit will try to catch them One of the most amazing things I ever witnessed with my own eyes was the time I as walking along a small streambank in a pasture the stream was about 3feet wide and about just a few inches to a foot to so deep There was some heavy patches of brush along the water the deer would often times bed in So I was walking along and working the cover in hopes of jumping a deer I stopped to check out a patch f multiflora rose and other weeds I noticed motion in the water and saw a small mink swimming towards me It had a cottontail rabbit in it's mouth The rabbit was floating on top of the water Even though the rabbit was 2 to 3 times bigger than the mink the mink was moving along without any problems As it as taking that rabbit to a safe place to hole up and have a heartly rabbit stew for the next several days Just like the photos and artwork shown in this thread I can see in my minds eye the very small mink providing transportation the it's next few days food supply .The thing about wildlife is it is a never ending source of entertainment

Props for using " leverette"!!!

We used to raise hundreds.
Now, just a handful for personal.consumption.

Dave, all my fun aside, I absolutely love rabbit meat. There used to be a retired man who raised the big ones , butchered and sold them himself. I can't recall the pounds I bought from him. Nice older man. This was years ago. He retired the rabbit business and I have not found anyone since , within commutable miles that does this as he did.

4H probably has touch with any local folks selling , I should just find a local club and contact them.

WS151, interesting info, and thank you. I saw video of a marten chasing a hare in winter. It was tenacious until it caught the hare.

Come now, Hoss, isn't that what the stuff of life and fun is all about ? Making sure your heart is beating up to par with a sudden jumpstart ?

When they spook like that, you can actually hear their muscles as they contract into that jump. And feel those large muscle masses gather and pop right through the saddle. The sound those muscles make, only in those times of explosive reaction, I can't even describe. It is a sound in a realm of its own. It is a split second in duration, and if there is other noise around, you can't hear it .

Life is fun !

I see ppl trying to evaluate a young horse for a hunter / jumper and acting like it's rocket science. It's not! Lay a yellow hose accross a sandy alley and use a Walmart bag on a sortin rod to drive a horse across it. You will see every bit of his potential I promise!

You should be paid handsomely for that sterling advice ! And you're exactly right ! Somethin' about those hoses....that's why I mumble " you silly hosehead", when that happens to me ....been there done that too, the wind knocked out of me , seeing an empty saddle where I used to be. Been a long time, and I aim to try and keep it that way.

Rabbits and grouse, beware !

When searching for fossil in the west of Dickson ND, I was totally blown away with all the "pre-historic rabbit skulls"(40-60 million) that there was, almost equal to the tortoise carapaces, minus skulls.
So even then everybody loved a little bunny tail, it was not a Hugh Hefner buzz