CHEYENNE – The cottontail rabbit garners attention from backyard frolicking children, to .22 toting winter hunters and every bird and mammal predator in the state.

                This winter, hunters should first give some attention to children in addition to the rabbits.  Take a kid hunting because the past few years have offered some of the best hunting in recent memory.  The season runs through Feb. 28.

                At home in rural or urban settings, from desert to timberline, the popular and prolific cottontail finds the majority of Wyoming to its liking.

                North America is the only continent home to the cottontail.  Many subspecies exist, including four found in Wyoming – the eastern, pygmy, mountain and desert cottontail.  Goshen and Laramie counties sit on the western fringe of the eastern cottontail’s range.  The eastern is Wyoming’s largest cottontail, in contrast with the unique pygmy cottontail found in southwest Wyoming.  From nose to tail, adult pygmies barely measure 12 inches.  Mountain and desert cottontails inhabit the rest of the state with ranges that often overlap with each other and the pygmy.  The posterior adornment that gives it its name is buff colored on the pygmy—which is protected from hunting—and the typical white on the others. 

                Despite being beset by weather, parasites, disease and nearly every carnivore the state offers, the cottontail endures remarkably well. With suitable habitat, the cottontail population expands and is mirrored by an increase in predators.  The population continues to climb until either the habitat gives out, a disease outbreak occurs, a severe winter hits or any combination of the three.   Predators play little part in population busts.

                Cottontails are such a staple for bobcats, and are also the most important entrée for great-horned owls and golden eagles.  Availability makes the critter a popular prey, but the seemingly docile bunny is far from defenseless.  When chased, its speed, maneuverability and escape shelters such as badger holes often save the day.  Cottontails are pros at remaining completely motionless to avoid detection.  But if cornered, an accurately aimed kick, synchronized with a well-timed jump, has rolled young foxes and sent raccoons hunting elsewhere.

Cottontails are nearly as popular with parasites and disease as they are with predators.  “Warble” or “bot” flies find cottontails an acceptable host for their maggot-like larvae.  Fibroma or “rabbit horns” are the viral induced black warts sometimes found on cottontails.  After removal, neither infestation affects the table quality of the flesh.

Tularemia or “rabbit fever” often serves as the grim reaper of cottontail populations.  Tuleremia is a bacterial disease transmitted by ticks and fleas.  Outbreaks are usually associated with population peaks.  Disease and bad winters serve as a part of the drastic checks and balances for rabbit populations.

To endure this host of calamities, cottontails counter with a computer-quick birthrate.  The breeding season in Wyoming runs from March to September.  Females have the potential to whelp five litters a season.  The nest is a well-concealed depression lined with vegetation and topped with fur from the mother’s abdomen.  After 28 days of gestation, 4-5 young are born blind, naked and helpless.  Cottontails nurse at dawn and dusk and desert the nest during the day. 

Baby cottontails seldom make successful pets and it is illegal to do so.  However, the female will continue to raise its young if babies are returned to the nest soon after the kidnapping,

The cottontail season runs through Feb. 28, with a daily limit of 10 and 20 in possession. Cottontail hunting requires a small game license, available at license selling agents or Wyoming Game and Fish Department offices.

(Contact: Al Langston, (307) 777-4600)

-WGFD-