Eastern Cottontail Rabbit

Description:

A moderately large, rusty-brown cottontail with relatively short ears and large hind feet (ears 50-60% as long as hind feet). Upperparts deep ochraceous buff, heavily lined with blackish, giving a rusty or reddish-brown effect; sides paler and grayer; top of tail like back; rump dingy grayish, not conspicuously different from back; front and sides of legs deep, rich, rusty reddish; underside of neck buff or ochraceous buff, rest of underparts, including tail, white.

Habitat:

Wildlife habitat yard.

Notes:

These cottontails are active largely in the twilight hours and at night, when they venture to open pastures, meadows, or lawns to forage. They frequently live in the edges of towns and feed in gardens and flower beds. In the daytime they rest in beds in nearby thickets or in underground burrows and small culverts. On the coastal prairies of Texas, a population density of one cottontail to 1.8 ha is not unusual. The food is variable with the season. They feed on a variety of grasses and forbs but when such vegetation is scarce, they eat the twigs and bark of shrubs and small trees. These rabbits are not sociable and are seldom seen feeding together.