COTTONTAIL RABBITS

Rabbits mean different things to different people. For hunters, the cottontail rabbit is an abundant, sporting, and tasty game animal. However, vegetable and flower gardeners, farmers, and homeowners who are suffering damage may have very little to say in favor of cottontails. They can do considerable damage to flowers, vegetables, trees, and shrubs any time of the year and in places ranging from suburban yards to rural fields and tree plantations. Control is often necessary to reduce damage, but complete extermination is not necessary, desirable, or even possible.

Rabbits usually can be accepted as interesting additions to the backyard or rural landscape if control techniques are applied correctly. Under some unusual circumstances, control of damage may be difficult.

Damage control methods include removal by live trapping or hunting, exclusion, and chemical repellents. In general, no toxicants or fumigants are registered for rabbit control; however, state regulations may vary. Frightening devices may provide a sense of security for the property owner, but they rarely diminish rabbit damage.

Identification
There are 13 species of cottontail rabbits (genus Sylvilagus), nine of which are found in various sections of North America north of Mexico. All nine are similar in general appearance and behavior, but differ in size, range, and habitat. Such differences result in a wide variation of damage problems, or lack of problems. The pygmy rabbit (S. idahoensis), found in the Pacific Northwest, weighs only 1 pound (0.4 kg), while the swamp rabbit (S. aquaticus), found in the southeastern states as far north as southern Illinois, may weigh up to 5 pounds (2.3 kg). Most species prefer open, brushy, or cultivated areas but some frequent marshes, swamps, or deserts. The swamp rabbit and the marsh rabbit (S. palustris) are strong swimmers. The eastern cottontail (S. floridanus) is the most abundant and widespread species. For the purposes of the discussion here about damage control and biology, the eastern cottontail will be considered representative of the genus. Cottontail rabbits must be distinguished from jackrabbits and other hares, which are generally larger in size and have longer ears. Jackrabbits are discussed in another chapter of this book.

The eastern cottontail rabbit is approximately 15 to 19 inches (37 to 48 cm) in length and weighs 2 to 4 pounds (0.9 to 1.8 kg). Males and females are basically the same size and color. Cottontails appear gray or brownish gray in the field. Closer examination reveals a grizzled blend of white, gray, brown, and black guard hairs over a soft grayish or brownish underfur, with a characteristic rusty brown spot on the nape of the neck. Rabbits molt twice each year, but remain the same general color. They have large ears, though smaller than those of jackrabbits, and the hind feet are much larger than the forefeet. The tail is short and white on the undersurface, and its similarity to a cotton ball resulted in the rabbit’s common name.

Range
The eastern cottontail’s range includes the entire United States east of the Rocky Mountains and introductions further west. It extends from southern New England along the Canadian border west to eastern Montana and south into Mexico and South America. The most common species of the western United States include the desert cottontail (S. auduboni), and mountain cottontail (S. muttalli). Refer to a field guide or suggested readings if other species of the genus Sylvilagus are of interest.

Habitat
Cottontails do not distribute themselves evenly across the landscape. They tend to concentrate in favorable habitat such as brushy fence rows or field edges, gullies filled with debris, brush piles, or landscaped backyards where food and cover are suitable. They are rarely found in dense forests or open grasslands, but fallow crop fields, such as those in the Conservation Reserve Program, may provide suitable habitat.

Cottontails generally spend their entire lives in an area of 10 acres or less. Occasionally they may move a mile or so from summer range to winter cover or to a new food supply. Lack of food or cover is usually the motivation for a rabbit to relocate. In suburban areas, rabbits are numerous and mobile enough to fill any “empty” habitat created when other rabbits are removed. Population density varies with habitat quality, but one rabbit per acre is a reasonable average.

Contrary to popular belief, cottontails do not dig their own burrows, as the European rabbit does. Cottontails use natural cavities or burrows excavated by woodchucks or other animals.

Underground dens are used primarily in extremely cold or wet weather and to escape pursuit. Brush piles and other areas of cover are often adequate alternatives to burrows.

In spring and fall, rabbits use a grass or weed shelter called a “form.” The form is a nest-like cavity on the surface of the ground, usually made in dense cover. It gives the rabbit some protection from weather, but is largely used for concealment. In summer, lush green growth provides both food and shelter, so there is little need for a form.

General Biology and Reproduction
Rabbits live only 12 to 15 months, and probably only one rabbit in 100 lives to see its third fall, yet they make the most of the time available to them. Cottontails can raise as many as 6 litters in a year. Typically, there are 2 to 3 litters per year in northern parts of the cottontail range and up to 5 to 6 in southern areas. In the north (Wisconsin), first litters are born as early as late March or April. In the south (Texas), litters may be born year-round. Litter size also varies with latitude; rabbits produce 5 to 6 young per litter in the north, 2 to 3 in the south. The rabbit’s gestation period is only 28 or 29 days, and a female is usually bred again within a few hours of giving birth. Rabbits give birth in a shallow nest depression in the ground. Young cottontails are born nearly furless with their eyes closed. Their eyes open in 7 to 8 days, and they leave the nest in 2 to 3 weeks.

Under good conditions, each pair of rabbits could produce approximately 18 young during the breeding season. Fortunately, this potential is rarely reached. Weather, disease, predators, encounters with cars and hunters, and other mortality factors combine to keep a lid on the rabbit population.

Because of the cottontail’s reproductive potential, no lethal control is effective for more than a limited period. Control measures are most effective when used against the breeding population during the winter. Habitat modification and exclusion techniques provide long-term, non-lethal control.

Food Habits, Damage and Damage Identification
The appetite of a rabbit can cause problems every season of the year. Rabbits eat flowers and vegetables in spring and summer. In fall and winter, they damage and kill valuable woody plants.

Rabbits will devour a wide variety of flowers. The one most commonly damaged is the tulip; they especially like the first shoots that appear in early spring. The proverbial carrot certainly is not the only vegetable that cottontails eat. Anyone who has had a row of peas, beans, or beets pruned to ground level knows how rabbits like these plants. Only a few crops—corn, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, and some peppers—seem to be immune from rabbit problems.

Equally annoying, and much more serious, is the damage rabbits do to woody plants by gnawing bark or clipping off branches, stems, and buds. In winter in northern states, when the ground is covered with snow for long periods, rabbits often severely damage expensive home landscape plants, orchards, forest plantations, and park trees and shrubs. Some young plants are clipped off at snow height, and large trees and shrubs may be completely girdled. When the latter happens, only sprouting from beneath the damage or a delicate bridge graft around the damage will save the plant.

A rabbit’s tastes in food can vary considerably by region and season. In general, cottontails seem to prefer plants of the rose family. Apple trees, black and red raspberries, and blackberries are the most frequently damaged food-producing woody plants, although cherry, plum, and nut trees are also damaged.

Among shade and ornamental trees, the hardest hit are mountain ash, basswood, red maple, sugar maple, honey locust, ironwood, red and white oak, and willow. Sumac, rose, Japanese barberry, dogwood, and some woody members of the pea family are among the shrubs damaged. Evergreens seem to be more susceptible to rabbit damage in some areas than in others. Young trees may be clipped off, and older trees may be deformed or killed. The character of the bark on woody plants also influences rabbit browsing. Most young trees have smooth, thin bark with green food material just beneath it. Such bark provides an easy-to-get food source for rabbits. The thick, rough bark of older trees often discourages gnawing. Even on the same plant, rabbits avoid the rough bark but girdle the young sprouts that have smooth bark.

Rabbit damage can be identified by the characteristic appearance of gnawing on older woody growth and the clean-cut, angled clipping of young stems. Distinctive round droppings in the immediate area are a good sign of their presence too.

Rabbit damage rarely reaches economic significance in commercial fields or plantations, but there are exceptions. For example, marsh rabbits have been implicated in sugarcane damage in Florida. Growers should always be alert to the potential problems caused by locally high rabbit populations.

Legal Status
In most states, rabbits are classified as game animals and are protected as such at all times except during the legal hunting season. Some state regulations may grant exceptions to property owners, allowing them to trap or shoot rabbits outside the normal hunting season on their own property.


Damage Prevention and Control Methods
(Most methods apply to all rabbit and hare species)

Exclusion
Low fences are very effective around gardens or shrubs.
Hardware cloth cylinders will protect fruit trees and ornamental plants.

Habitat Modification
Removal of brush piles, debris, dumps, and other cover makes an area less suitable for rabbits.

Frightening
Several methods are available but none are reliable.

Repellents
A wide variety of commercial formulations is available; most are taste repellents based on the fungicide thiram. Home-remedy types may provide some relief.

Toxicants
None are registered.

Trapping
Commercial live traps or homemade box traps are effective, particularly during winter in northern states.

Shooting
Sport hunting and/or routine shooting of problem individuals are very effective methods.

Other Methods
Many “gimmick” solutions are available but unreliable. For example, sections of garden hose to simulate snakes, water-filled jugs to create frightening, distorted reflections.




ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The above information was adapted from PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF WILDLIFE DAMAGE with permission of the editors, Scott E. Hygnstrom, Robert M. Timm, and Gary E. Larson (Cooperative Extension Division, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources University of Nebraska-Lincoln, United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Animal Damage Control, Great Plains Agricultural Council Wildlife Committee).