Eastern cottontail
The eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) is a New World cottontail rabbit, a member of the family Leporidae. It is the most common rabbit species in North America.
Distribution[edit]
The eastern cottontail can be found in meadows and shrubby areas in the eastern and south-central United States, southern Canada, eastern Mexico, Central America and northernmost South America. It is also found on the Caribbean island of Margarita. It is abundant in Midwest North America. Its range expanded north as forests were cleared by settlers.[4] Originally, it was not found in New England, but it has been introduced and now competes for habitat there with the native New England cottontail. It has also been introduced into parts of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.[5] In the 1950s and 1960s, the eastern cottontail was introduced to France and northern Italy, where it displayed a rapid territorial expansion and increase in population density.[6]
The population in the mountains of the southwestern United States and western Mexico is now thought to be a distinct species, the robust cottontail (S. holzneri).[7]
Habitat[edit]
Optimal eastern cottontail habitat includes open grassy areas, clearings, and old fields supporting abundant green grasses and herbs, with shrubs in the area or edges for cover.[8] The essential components of eastern cottontail habitat are an abundance of well-distributed escape cover (dense shrubs) interspersed with more open foraging areas such as grasslands and pastures.[9] Habitat parameters important for eastern cottontails in ponderosa pine, mixed species, and pinyon (Pinus spp.)-juniper (Juniperus spp.) woodlands include woody debris, herbaceous and shrubby understories, and patchiness. Typically eastern cottontails occupy habitats in and around farms including fields, pastures, open woods, thickets associated with fencerows, wooded thickets, forest edges, and suburban areas with adequate food and cover. They are also found in swamps and marshes and usually avoid dense woods.[4]
Home range[edit]
The eastern cottontail home range is roughly circular in uniform habitats. Eastern cottontails typically inhabit one home range throughout their lifetime, but home range shifts in response to vegetation changes and weather are common.[9] In New England, eastern cottontail home ranges average 1.4 acres (0.57 hectares) for adult males and 1.2 acres (0.49 hectares) for adult females but vary in size from 0.5 to 40 acres (0.20 to 16.19 hectares), depending on season, habitat quality, and individual. The largest ranges are occupied by adult males during the breeding season. In southwestern Wisconsin adult male home ranges averaged 6.9 acres (2.8 hectares) in spring, increased to 10 acres (4.0 hectares) in early summer, and decreased to 3.7 acres (1.5 hectares) by late summer.[10] Daily activity is usually restricted to 10% to 20% of the overall home range.[9]
In southeastern Wisconsin, home ranges of males overlapped by up to 50%, but female home ranges did not overlap by more than 25% and actual defense of range by females occurred only in the immediate area of the nest. Males fight each other to establish dominance hierarchy and mating priority.[10]
Description[edit]
The eastern cottontail has a white spot on forehead, red-brown or gray-brown fur, with large hind feet, long ears, and a short, fluffy white tail. Its underside fur is white. There is a rusty patch on the tail. Its appearance differs from that of a hare in that it has a brownish-gray coloring around the head and neck. The body is lighter color with a white underside on the tail. It has large brown eyes and large ears to see and listen for danger. In winter the cottontail's pelage is more gray than brown. The kits develop the same coloring after a few weeks, but they also have a white blaze that goes down their forehead; this marking eventually disappears. This rabbit is medium-sized, measuring 36–48 cm (14–19 in) in total length, including a small tail that averages 5.3 cm (2.1 in).[14][15] Weight can range from 1.8 to 4.4 lb (800 to 2,000 g), with an average of around 2.6 lb (1,200 g). The female tends to be heavier, although the sexes broadly overlap in size.[16][17] There may be some slight variation in the body size of eastern cottontails, with weights seeming to increase from south to north, in accordance with Bergmann's rule. Adult specimens from the Florida Museum of Natural History, collected in Florida, have a mean weight of 2.244 lb (1,018 g).[18] Meanwhile, 346 adult cottontails from Michigan were found to have averaged 3.186 lb (1,445 g) in mass.[19] Due to Eastern Cottontails being so small and since they do not usually fight back they are easy prey for other animals such as coyotes, bobcats, and even foxes.
Behavior[edit]
The eastern cottontail is a very territorial animal. When chased, it runs in a zigzag pattern, running up to 18 mph (29 km/h). The cottontail prefers an area where it can be out in the open but hide quickly. Forests, swamps, thickets, bushes, or open areas where shelter is close by are optimal habitation sites for this species. Cottontails do not dig burrows, but rather rest in a form, a shallow, scratched-out depression in a clump of grass or under brush. It may use the dens of groundhogs as a temporary home or during heavy snow.[20]
Eastern cottontails are crepuscular to nocturnal feeders; although they usually spend most of the daylight hours resting in shallow depressions under vegetative cover or other shelter, they can be seen at any time of day.[13] Eastern cottontails are most active when visibility is limited, such as rainy or foggy nights.[4] Eastern cottontails usually move only short distances, and they may remain sitting very still for up to a few hours at a time. Eastern cottontails are active year-round.[13]
Diet[edit]
The diet of eastern cottontails is varied and largely dependent on availability. Eastern cottontails eat vegetation almost exclusively; arthropods have occasionally been found in pellets.[24] Some studies list as many as 70[24] to 145 plant species in local diets. Food items include bark, twigs, leaves, fruit, buds, flowers, grass seeds, sedge fruits, and rush seeds.[11] There is a preference for small material: branches, twigs, and stems up to 0.25 in (0.64 cm). Leporids including eastern cottontails are coprophagous, producing two types of fecal pellets, one of which is consumed. The digestion of pellets greatly increases the nutritional value of dietary items.[11][13]
In summer, eastern cottontails consume tender green herbaceous vegetation when it is available. In many areas Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratense) and Canada bluegrass (P. compressa) are important dietary components.[21] Other favored species include clovers (Trifolium spp.), crabgrasses (Digitaria spp.), and wild rye (Elymus spp.).[8][15] In Connecticut, important summer foods include clovers, alfalfa, timothy (Phleum pratense), bluegrasses (Poa spp.), quackgrass (Elytrigia repens), crabgrasses, redtop (Agrostis alba), ragweed (Ambrosia psilostachya), goldenrods (Solidago spp.), plantains (Plantago spp.), chickweed (Stellaria media), dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), and wild strawberries (Fragaria spp.).[15] Eastern cottontails also consume many domestic crops.[4]
During the dormant season, or when green vegetation is covered with snow, eastern cottontails consume twigs, buds, and bark of woody vegetation.[8] As the snow accumulates, cottontails have access to the higher trunk and branches.[15] In Connecticut, important winter foods include gray birch (Betula populifolia), red maple, and smooth sumac (Rhus glabra).[24]
Recognized subspecies of Sylvilagus floridanus[1]