Eastern Cottontail Rabbit
(Sylvilagus floridanus)

The Definitive Guide to Rabbit Control and Where to Find a
Wildlife Control Professional!

Are you frustrated and tired of dealing with the Damage caused by WILDLIFE. This site deals with WILDLIFE DAMAGE and steps the "Do it yourselfer" can take to protecting your property from the damage caused by Wildlife in your area.

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Identification

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.

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 North-west, weighs only 1 pound, while the Swamp rabbit (S. aquaticus), found in the southeastern states as far north as southern Illinois, may weigh up to 5 pounds.

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.

Cottontail rabbits must be distinguished from jackrabbits and other hares, which are generally larger in size and have longer ears.

The Eastern cottontail rabbit is approximately 15 to 19 inches in length and weighs 2 to 4 pounds. Males and females are basically the same size and color. Cottontails have 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).

Damage Caused by Rabbits

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, bass-wood, red maple, sugar maple, honey locust, ironwood, red and white oak, and willow. Sumac, rose, Japanese bar-berry, 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.

For more information on Rabbit Damage and Control Methods click here.

Control Methods

Shooting, Trapping, Repellents, Habitat Modification and Exclusion are some methods used to control rabbit damage.