The eastern cottontail's diet varies by season and distribution. The majority of their diet consists of grasses, vegetation, roots, seeds, twigs and bark. They prefer cover which varies by season and by region. Good rabbit habitat consists of natural growing vegetation and overgrown fields, however the cottontail rabbit is one of the few rabbits that do not live in burrows. |
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A female cottontail rabbit is able to breed and have young in their first year of life. Females may produce 35 young in seven litters annually. Gestation averages 30 days and the young are born blind and helpless, but are on their own in two weeks, leaving the female cottontail ready to breed and have more young.
Most cottontail rabbits do not survive longer than two years because they are prey to many animals, such as, owls, hawks, weasels, martens, lynx, bobcat, domestic cats and dogs, foxes, and wolves. Cottontail rabbits are the bottom of the food chain, considered one of nature's snacks. |
