Was talking to somebody at the ITA sale and he was telling me that jack rabbits are practically non existent in most if not all western states now. I've noticed that I see no jacks at all now traveling thru the desert the last couple of years. Looked it up and apparently this isn't the normal 8 year die-off from tularemia (bacterial), but a rabbit hemorrhagic virus that was introduced from domestic rabbits.

I did however see one jack yesterday near Burns, Oregon. So I guess there's at least a few around.

I would think it will be hard for coyotes and bobcats to make a living without that important food source.

I believe I seen two in the last 6 to 7 years. Extinct!!!

been at least 7 years in seeing one White tailed jackrabbit on the prairies in Manitoba
eastern cottontails are around but not numerous
what has hit the rabbits there here is fall applications of ammonia anhydrous as they hop out of the way of the spreading and lung collapse follows.

I see 1 or 2 every year.

I often see two or three on the road to the north of my house at night. It is only 6 miles of road. A couple years ago I had them coming in right before dark to eat grain I was putting out for pheasants. I would be able to see a half dozen at once pretty much every evening.

I've seen a few here in south-central Oregon but would expect many more. Last year while scouting for mule deer, I was surprised at the lack of rabbit poop, both in the foothills and out in the flats.

Very sad. Chuck and I use to patrol the desert around Drewsey calling and trapping coyotes and lived on jackrabbit stew. You might see dozens at a time around the haystacks.

I have seen only one in N.D and MN all winter. And 20 yrs ago we would have 100 in the trees around are place in the winter. And now there all gone.

Still see quite a few around here.

Glad to hear that. What part of Wyoming are you in? When I used to hunt the National coyote calling contest I sure saw lots in the little America area.

They cycle up and down drastically here but always have. I see 2-10 a day

SE Wyoming, Laramie.
Hunted a ranch many years back that had hundreds, yarded up for Winter. Looked like a horror show, lol.

I seem to have several around the house here.

In my corner of the world, we’re actually seeing an increase in jackrabbits and cottontails

South and Western MN once had decent jackrabbit populations as well. Recent roadside counts show historically low population levels. While every indication is that vast changes in land use have impacted habitat, and that hunter harvest has nothing to do with the decline, a recent survey in Minnesota Outdoor News has 84% of responders in favor of closing the jackrabbit season.

Tularemia was always responsible for the cyclic die-offs in our vast jackrabbit habitat of eastern Oregon, but populations would build back fairly fast. I'm not seeing that with this new thing. RHD; a very contagious virus that persists in droppings, the soil, etc for long periods of time.

Never seen this few in northern Utah. It's been over 10 years since we had much of a population. You see 1 on the road for every hundred you saw in the past and 1 for every 500 when numbers were high. I miss a good rabbit hunt. It was easy to shoot a carton of .22 in a few hours. Oh the good old days.

Bird hunting in Sodak a few years ago my dog jumped one out of the road ditch into the green carpet of a recently planted wheat field. English Setter with a big motor in mid season shape. You could see forever. This started 20 ft from me going into the setting sun. It remains the most unbelievable display of pure all out speed I’ve witnessed in person. Let her go for half a mile before I called her back. The dust plumes raised by two speed merchants rising into the sunlight was something I’ll never forget. Generally see one Jack every year out there. …no she didn’t catch that rabbit, but it had to grab road gear.

Very common here, not uncommon to see 1-2 a mile at night in certain areas. Bad winters and they will group up in the tree belts in big numbers.
While thermaling one night last spring counted over 20 in a 1/4 of freshly sprouted corn, damage had to be bad.

At times they were so thick out west that they would have rabbit round ups and with a closing circle club literally thousands. Nothing like that for many many years.

when you look at the fur records of ND at the turn of the century your head would explode,,,even up to the 1950's

I haven't seen a jack around here (NE Nebr.) for at least 20 years, plenty of cottontails but no jacks.

Four or five years ago I would hit more on the freeway driving from Buffalo to Kaycee than I would see in that stretch this winter. Still a few around, but they have crashed. They always cycle just like our snowshoes here do, so I never thought much of it. Hopefully you are incorrect and they come back.

Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease is a real thing. Populations are very slow to recover unlike other rabbit cyclic die offs.

https://www.avma.org/resources-tool...animal-health/rabbit-hemorrhagic-disease

Odie1, I haven’t seen one here in eastern or southeastern Nebraska since I was a kid, last one I saw that has to be about 40 years ago easily.
With their ears up when running there is no doubt what they are, so much bigger than other rabbits here. I’ll never forget the last one I saw. Unique animal for sure.
Jim

I haven't been up there in awhile, but there used to be a sizable population around El Reno in central Oklahoma.

There used to be coyotes that made a living going up and down 395 in eastern Oregon cleaning up road hit jackrabbits. One of my hunting techniques was having my partner drop me off and continue on and I would wait in the ditch until a truck came by and then scream my guts out on my jackrabbit call to imitate a wounded jack. Gotta a lot of 'yotes that way.

I lived in Jefferson Co. Idaho the winter of '81-'82 when the locals had a horrendous problem with Black-tailed Jacks.....there were so many they literally would eat up haystacks to the point they'd collapse and kill a bunch of the jackrabbits. That was the year the Bunny Bops/Roundups got national news coverage and the AR folks sued to stop them from clubbing the darn things.
I'd shoot them and bone them out for sausage meat. Best hunt I killed either 14 or 17 in the Lewisville Knolls and had to quit on account of not being able to carry any more! They averaged between 6 and 8 lbs each. The big White-tailed Jackrabbits were even bigger, but I only shot a few of those. They looked like monstrous Snowshoe Hares. When I moved back to Michigan that spring I had over 60 lbs of boned meat I made into breakfast sausage.

ttt

That's brilliant.

So sad to hear, I know some do not think so. JMO

This area we don't see any like there used to be 40 years ago.

Hahaha

Always domestic and also CWD in deer came from deer farms

As it was once found a spot where 100 white tailed jackrabbits were shot and left......took home 50 in the trunk of my car and spent 10 hours with a researcher from CDC securing samples to freeze....years later they were pulling samples for different viruses . Interesting 2 had sheep ked flies Melophagus ovinus on them and those were of interest....the closest sheep farm was 30 miles away

Oregon

I used to kill a few every year with my bow ( downgraded arrows) off my my porch . Haven't seen but a couple the last 7 or8 years