Eastern Cottontail Rabbits

Eastern cottontail rabbits are everywhere in Ohio.  Their ancient ancestors appeared at least 33 million years ago during the late Eocene Epoch.   Adaptable creatures, they evolved into the eastern cottontail rabbits we have today.  They’re the most common rabbit species in North America – ranging throughout North America, Latin America and Northern South America.  While native to Ohio it wasn’t until European settlers arrived and cleared woodlands for open farmland creating open areas bordered by woods – the perfect habitat for these rabbits – that the cottontail rabbit became widespread throughout the state. 

The eastern cottontail is both crepuscular and nocturnal, meaning it’s active from dusk to dawn.  Although this rabbit may occasionally be out during the day they’re normally hiding under thick cover or in underground burrows created by other animals.  Eastern cottontails have excellent vision, hearing and sense of smell.  Their noses have nearly 100 million scent receptors.  And they’re able to twitch their noses between 20 and 120 times a minute!  During the summer these rabbits have short brownish-red or brownish-gray fur.  Cottontails don’t hibernate, during the winter their fur is longer and grayer.  Their winter fur is warmer and provides camouflage, allowing them to blend in better with their environment.   Cottontails use the cover of darkness and travel lanes to evade predators.  A travel lane may follow a bushy fence row or a hedge or a covered stream bank – a safe way to move from place to place.  When they do have to escape from a predator they usually run in a zigzag pattern.  And they’re fast- they can run up to 18 miles per hour.  Eastern cottontails feed their young only at night.  Mother rabbits don’t go near their nests during the day.  This leads people to believe that the mother has abandoned her little ones.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Eastern cottontails are herbivores.  During Summer foods they eat include clover, dandelions, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruits, grasses, and just about anything that grows in a garden.  During the winter they will eat twigs, dry hay, field corn and bark of tree saplings, blackberry, and multiflora rose.   It’s estimated these rabbits eat from 70 to 145 different plant species.   Although some of their eating habits do get them in trouble with gardeners and farmers in the summer and foresters, landscapers and orchardists in the winter they are an important part of the ecosystem.

They’re prey to animals such as hawks, owls, foxes, coyotes, weasels, racoons, minks, bobcats, cats, dogs, and snakes.  Young rabbits can be prey to skunks, badgers and possums.  Let’s help the eastern cottontail by turning off all unnecessary lights at night so they can have the dark nighttime environment they need to thrive and continue as an important member of their ecosystem.