Eastern Cottontail Rabbits defecate soft, green pellets which they then eat.
The pellets contain partially digested food and are reservoirs of additional calories and nutrients.
By eating these pellets and digesting them further, the rabbits absorb more nutrition from their food.
This may seem a disgusting habit to humans but is vital to Eastern Cottontails’ health. If prevented from eating these pellets, they sicken and either become easy prey to predators or die outright.
Active Time
Primarily nocturnal (night-active)
Crepuscular (dawn and/or dusk active)
Range
Throughout the eastern United States, except for New England where it is replaced by the New England Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus transitionalis).
Season(s)
Mating / Breeding Season
Eastern Cottontail Rabbits start to mate and breed in February and continue to do so throughout the summer months.
Gestation is 28 – 32 days.
A female will birth four to six babies (sometimes up to 9) three or four times a year.
As mammals, Eastern Cottontails share many physical characteristics with other mammals, including:
Ability to maintain stable body temperatures
Mammary glands in females that produce milk for nourishing young
Hair
But Eastern Cottontails are lagomorphs (order Lagomorpha), which means they have some characteristics that mammals in other orders don’t share.
Compared to their close cousins the rodents (order Rodentia), lagomorphs have two pairs in the upper jaw (one large and one small). Rodents have only one pair of upper incisors (they also have a pair of lower incisors).
The scrotum of male lagomorphs lie in front of the penis instead of behind it. This anatomical arrangement differs from that of all other mammals, except for some marsupials (infraclass Marsupialia) (Whitaker Jr. 1996).
Eastern Cottontails Where You Least Expect Them
Eastern Cottontail Rabbits usually build their nest cavities in a hollow in the ground.
They line the shallow depressions with grasses and fur, then camouflage the cavities by capping them with vegetation.
But one enterprising rabbit decided to live the high life.
This female rabbit built a successful nest for her babies 2.5 meters above the ground in extremely thick and tightly wound Wisteria stems above a backyard swing in suburban Illinois (McCallum et al. 2018, https://doi.org/10.1656/045.025.0114).
More Eastern Cottontail Rabbits Than You Think
Eastern Cottontail Rabbits are justly famous for reproducing quickly.
Female rabbits mate again within hours of giving birth, and the combined efforts of a single pair of rabbits and their offspring could produce 350,000 rabbits in five years if none were lost to predation (Whitaker Jr. 1996).
Predators cut these numbers down significantly but there are still more Eastern Cottontail Rabbits around than you might think.
One study assessed rabbit survival between winters in Lincoln Park Zoo.
More animals are added regularly, so please visit again!
Christine
Christine is the creator and author of NowIWonder.com, a website dedicated to the animals and plants that share our world, and the science that helps us understand them. Inspired by lifelong exploration and learning, Christine loves to share her knowledge with others who want to connect with wild faces and wild spaces.
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