Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Prolific Cottontail Rabbit

By: Tom Berg

Bunnies seem to be everywhere, especially in the spring and summer. Mother cottontail rabbits often start having babies in April and May, and they can have as many as four separate litters during the warm weather months. With an average of 3-6 young in each litter, it doesn’t take long to build up a pretty big population of rabbits in an area!

Cottontail rabbits can be easily identified by anyone, even young children. Their drab brownish gray fur helps them hide at night and on gray, cloudy days, but their large ears and white “cotton ball-like” tail are a dead giveaway when they are spotted.

Rabbits eat a wide variety of plants during the summertime, including grasses, clover, shrubs, and many types of weeds. Gardeners typically don’t like rabbits because the small mammals also relish all kinds of flowers. Vegetable gardens are another favorite feeding area, and gardeners are usually forced to install fencing to keep the hungry rabbits out.

Baby rabbits are totally helpless at birth and for the next several days following birth, but they grow exceptionally fast. Young rabbits leave the nest after a mere 2-3 weeks, and after 3-4 weeks they are totally self-sufficient. Equally surprising is the fact that these prolific cottontail rabbits become sexually mature at 2-3 months of age. No wonder rabbit populations increase quickly!

Mother Nature, of course, has a plan for controlling so many young rabbits. Almost every predator on land and in the air is interested in catching a rabbit for dinner. Foxes, coyotes, raccoons, opossum and snakes are some of their biggest predators. Birds like hawks and owls are also major rabbit predators. Even domestic dogs and cats kill many young rabbits every year.

The mortality rate for rabbits is always high, and most cottontails do not live more than two or three years. Since baby rabbits are so vulnerable when born, it is typical for less than 20 percent of them make it through their first year. Luckily, rabbits are prolific enough to replace those losses.

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