Eastern Cottontail

The Eastern Cottontail Rabbit has a compact body with long hind legs, long ears, large brown eyes, and a small tail with a puffy white underside, which resembles a cotton ball. The fur is reddish-brown or grayish-brown in color with the fur around their nose, belly and underside of the tail being white. Almost all have a gray patch around the neck and the kits have an additional white mark on their forehead that fades as they mature. Cottontail Rabbits are herbivores and will eat many types of vegetation. They enjoy grasses, clover, weeds, dandelion, bulbs, many herbs, flowers, leaves and twigs.

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Cottontails are territorial and aggressive rabbits. They will stand on their back feet when on the look out for predators such as birds of prey, foxes, coyotes, cats, dogs, humans and anything else that looks hungry. When running from a predator, the rabbit will often leap from side to side in order to break its scent trail. A cottontail rabbit can run up to fifteen miles per hour.

These rabbits are found in North America. They enjoy a variety of habitats including fields, woods, farmlands and suburban backyards, but especially like areas where there are thickets and brush piles. Cottontails do not live in groups. A female will dig a shallow nest, which she lines with grass and fur, to keep her babies warm. She will not stay with the litter after they are born. Mother rabbits will only spend about a total of 5-10 minutes each day nursing and caring for her kits. Kits have no scent so leaving them alone, covered with grass, is the best the mother rabbit can do to protect her babies from predators.

Baby cottontail rabbits are born without fur and with their eyes closed. A full coat develops in a week and their eyes open at 10 days of age. They wean by 3-4 weeks of age. Older babies will often explore the world around their nest as they await the mothers return. They will stay as a family group until they are about 5 weeks old when they are old enough to leave, hopping off on their own.