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!