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Fun Facts
Did You Know?
Eastern cottontail rabbits are the base of the food web in North Louisiana in a way that no other single species can claim. Every predator in the region eats them. Bobcats eat them. Coyotes eat them. Red-tailed hawks eat them. Great horned owls eat them. Rat snakes eat the young. Fire ants eat the young. Domestic dogs and cats eat them. A cottontail rabbit born in a grass-lined nest in a Ruston backyard in April has so many animals trying to eat it that surviving to adulthood is a genuine statistical accomplishment, and the species compensates for this universal popularity as prey by…
If This Animal Could Talk...
"Watch closely, respect my space, and let my habitat explain the rest of the story."
Cottontail Rabbits:Cottontail Rabbits Eastern cottontail rabbits are the base of the food web in North Louisiana in a way that no other single species can claim. Every predator in the region eats them.
A Few More Facts
How they hunt and forage: Cottontails are herbivores with a diet that shifts seasonally. Spring and summer: grasses, clover, garden vegetables, wild strawberries, dandelions, and other green vegetation. Fall and winter: twigs, bark, buds, and dried vegetation. Cottontails practice coprophagy — eating their own fecal pellets — to extract additional nutrients from plant material that passes through the digestive tract incompletely digested on the first pass. The soft, green cecal pellets are consumed directly from the anus, re-digested, and produce a second, drier pellet that is deposited normally. Coprophagy is standard rabbit biology, not a sign of nutritional distress.
Live birth or eggs? yes
When young are born: A cottontail rabbit born in a grass-lined nest in a Ruston backyard in April has so many animals trying to eat it that surviving to adulthood is a genuine statistical accomplishment, and the species compensates for this universal popularity as prey by reproducing at a rate that borders on biological absurdity.
What Is the Cottontail Rabbit Often Confused With?
Adult eastern cottontails weigh about 2 to 3 pounds and measure 15 to 19 inches in total length. The fur is buffy brown on the back with coarser gray-and-black-tipped guard hairs. Flanks are gray, the belly is white, and the nape of the neck has a distinctive rufous (reddish-brown) patch. Ears are long but proportionally smaller than a jackrabbit's — about 2.5 to 3 inches. The tail is the field mark. Small, round, and white underneath, a cottontail's tail looks like a cotton ball stuck to the animal's rear end and flashes white when the rabbit runs. That white flash may serve as a visual signal to other cottontails — "I see the predator and I am running" — or it may function to confuse predators by presenting a bright, moving target that suddenly disappears when the rabbit stops and tucks the tail down. Either way, the tail is the reason people call them cottontails, and it is visible from surprisingly far away when the rabbit is running.
Drag the handle left and right to compare Cottontail Rabbit side by side with the species it gets mistaken for most.
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Accessibility
Accessibility
Cottontails are crepuscular — most active at dawn and dusk. The most common non-visual encounter is the sound of a rabbit flushing from cover: a sudden explosive rustling in vegetation, sometimes accompanied by a thumping of hind feet on the ground. Cottontails are largely silent, but a rabbit in distress — caught by a predator — produces a piercing scream that carries a remarkable distance and is one of the most unsettling sounds in North Louisiana's wildlife repertoire.
Any brushy edge habitat in North Louisiana holds cottontails. Dawn and dusk walks along fencerows, field edges, garden margins, and suburban yards during warm months produce reliable sightings.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does Cottontail Rabbits live in North Louisiana?
Yes. Eastern cottontail rabbits are the base of the food web in North Louisiana in a way that no other single species can claim. North Louisiana sits in the heart of the range, and cottontails occupy every habitat type in the region: brushy fencerows, overgrown pastures, hayfields, garden edges, suburban yards, forest edges, hedgerows, and any patch of dense, low vegetation that provides cover within sprinting distance of a food source.
The classic cottontail habitat in North Louisiana is a brushy fencerow between a hayfield and a woodlot — dense brambles, honeysuckle, and brush provide escape cover, while the hayfield and woodland edge provide foraging.
How do you identify Cottontail Rabbits?
Adult eastern cottontails weigh about 2 to 3 pounds and measure 15 to 19 inches in total length. The fur is buffy brown on the back with coarser gray-and-black-tipped guard hairs. Flanks are gray, the belly is white, and the nape of the neck has a distinctive rufous (reddish-brown) patch. Ears are long but proportionally smaller than a jackrabbit's — about 2.5 to 3 inches
What does Cottontail Rabbits eat?
What They Eat
Cottontails are herbivores with a diet that shifts seasonally. Spring and summer: grasses, clover, garden vegetables, wild strawberries, dandelions, and other green vegetation. Fall and winter: twigs, bark, buds, and dried vegetation. Cottontails practice coprophagy — eating their own fecal pellets — to extract additional nutrients from plant material that passes through the digestive tract incompletely digested on the first pass. The soft, green cecal pellets are consumed directly from the anus, re-digested, and produce a second, drier pellet that is deposited normally.
Coprophagy is standard rabbit biology, not a sign of nutritional distress.
Is Cottontail Rabbits dangerous to people?
No. This species is not dangerous to people when it is observed without handling or disturbance
