Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus): Rabbit Facts

What is an eastern cottontail?

The eastern cottontail is one of about 15–20 species of cottontail rabbits in the genus Sylvilagus, a group found only in the Americas. Its scientific name means roughly “woodland hare of Florida”, although it lives far beyond Florida. Like all rabbits and hares, it belongs to the family Leporidae and the order Lagomorpha. Lagomorphs are not rodents: they have a second, small pair of upper incisor teeth hidden behind the front pair.

Cottontails are only distantly related to the European rabbit, the burrowing ancestor of all pet rabbits, even though the two look alike. The two belong to different genera, cannot interbreed, and live very different lives. European rabbits dig large shared warrens, while cottontails live alone above ground and hide in thick vegetation.

Scientists recognize many subspecies of eastern cottontail across its huge range, differing slightly in size and color. Several other cottontails share parts of its range, including the New England cottontail in the northeastern United States and the desert cottontail in the dry West.

What does an eastern cottontail look like?

The eastern cottontail is a medium-sized rabbit with grizzled brown to grayish-brown fur on the back, a paler gray flank and a white belly. It has a rusty or reddish patch on the nape of the neck, long ears and large brown eyes set high on the sides of the head, which give it a wide field of view. The coat turns grayer in winter.

The tail is short and round, brown on top and bright white underneath. When the rabbit sits still the tail is barely visible, but when it bolts, the white underside flashes like a cotton ball. Many eastern cottontails, especially young ones, have a small white spot or blaze on the forehead, a feature that helps separate them from the similar New England cottontail, which tends to have a black spot between the ears.

The hind feet are long and powerful for sprinting, while the front feet are smaller. Cottontails eat on all fours rather than holding food in their paws like squirrels.

How big is an eastern cottontail?

Adult eastern cottontails measure about 36–48 cm (14–19 in) long, including a tail of only about 4–6 cm (1.5–2.5 in). They usually weigh about 0.8–2 kg (1.8–4.4 lb), with an average near 1.2 kg (2.6 lb). Females are on average slightly heavier than males, although the sexes overlap widely.

Body size changes across the range. Cottontails in the north tend to be heavier than those in the south: adults studied in Michigan averaged about 1.4 kg (3.2 lb), while museum specimens from Florida averaged about 1 kg (2.2 lb). Bigger bodies lose heat more slowly, which helps in cold winters.

Where do eastern cottontails live?

The eastern cottontail has one of the largest ranges of any rabbit. It is found from southern Canada through the eastern, central and southwestern United States into Mexico, Central America and the northern parts of Colombia and Venezuela, as well as Margarita Island off Venezuela. Its range grew north and east after European settlers cleared forests, and it is especially abundant in the Midwest.

People have also moved it around. It was released in New England, where it now outnumbers the native New England cottontail, and in parts of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. In the 1950s and 1960s it was introduced to Italy and France for hunting, and it has spread widely in northern Italy.

Cottontails prefer edges, where open feeding areas meet thick cover. Typical places are meadows, old fields, hedgerows, brushy woodland edges, farmland, golf courses, parks and suburban yards with shrubs. They generally avoid dense, unbroken forest. A cottontail’s home range is small, often around 0.5–1.5 hectares (1.2–3.7 acres), although it can be several times larger where food is scarce or during the breeding season. For more on rabbit homes around the world, see Where do rabbits live?

What do eastern cottontails eat?

Eastern cottontails are herbivores that eat a wide variety of plants; studies have recorded around 70 to more than 140 plant species in their diet. In spring and summer they prefer soft green food such as grasses, clover, plantain, dandelion, chickweed and alfalfa, and they also visit vegetable gardens and crops.

In winter, when snow covers the ground, they switch to woody food. They nibble buds and twigs and gnaw bark from shrubs and young trees such as maples, birches, sumac and fruit trees. Their sharp-edged incisors leave a clean, angled cut on twigs, unlike the ragged tear left by deer.

Like other rabbits, cottontails practice coprophagy, which means they eat some of their own droppings. They produce special soft pellets, often called cecotropes, that are re-eaten straight from the body so that the gut can absorb vitamins and nutrients missed the first time. The hard, round droppings seen on lawns are the second, final kind.

Behavior: how do cottontails stay alive?

Eastern cottontails are mainly crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk, and they also feed at night. On cloudy or foggy days they may be seen at any hour. They do not hibernate and remain active all winter.

During the day a cottontail rests in a form, a shallow scrape in the grass or under a bush that fits its body. Its first defense is to freeze. Thanks to its camouflage, it can stay motionless while a person or predator walks within a few feet. If discovered, it bursts away in a zigzag run of up to about 29 km/h (18 mph), heading for thick cover. Cottontails rarely dig, but in deep snow or when chased they may dive into a woodchuck burrow, rock pile or brush pile.

Cottontails are mostly solitary, but their home ranges overlap. During the breeding season males compete for females, and several males may follow one female. Courting pairs perform a striking display in which one rabbit dashes at the other, which leaps straight up as the first runs underneath, and then they may swap roles. Cottontails are mostly silent but can thump the ground with their hind feet and scream loudly when caught.

Reproduction and life cycle

Eastern cottontails are among the fastest-breeding mammals in North America. The breeding season starts as early as January in the South and around March in the North, and runs through late summer. In the far South, breeding can continue almost all year.

Pregnancy lasts only about 28 days (25–35 days). A female usually mates again within hours of giving birth, so she can produce litter after litter. Each female has 1–7 litters a year, typically 3–4, with about 3–8 young per litter and an average of around 5. Northern females have fewer litters but larger ones. Females born early in spring can mature at only two to three months old and may breed in their first summer. For the full numbers and why so few young survive, see How many babies do rabbits have?

Before giving birth, the mother scrapes a shallow, slanting hole in the ground, typically about 13 cm (5 in) deep and wide and 18 cm (7 in) long, often in a lawn, hayfield or weedy patch. She lines it with dry grass and fur pulled from her belly and covers the young with the same material. She stays away most of the day so her scent does not lead predators to the nest, returning only briefly, usually around dawn and dusk, to nurse.

The young, called kits or kittens, are born blind and covered in fine fur. Their eyes open after about 4–7 days, they leave the nest at about 12–16 days, they are weaned by 4–5 weeks, and they start moving away at around 7 weeks. At this age young cottontails, about the size of a fist, are often seen alone on lawns; they are already independent.

How long do eastern cottontails live?

Most wild eastern cottontails live short lives. The average lifespan in the wild is often estimated at about 15 months, and only about one adult in five survives from one year to the next. The oldest known wild cottontail reached about five years, and individuals in captivity have lived up to about nine years.

Losses are heaviest among the young. Many nests are found by predators, flooded or disturbed by mowing, and young rabbits that have just left the nest are inexperienced and easy to catch. Large litters and many litters a year are the cottontail’s answer to this high death rate.

Predators, threats and conservation

The eastern cottontail is a key prey animal in North America, and a huge range of predators eat it. These include red and gray foxes, coyotes, bobcats, weasels, minks, raccoons, domestic cats and dogs, snakes, crows, many hawks and owls. In some areas it is the main prey of the red-tailed hawk during the nesting season, and in Pennsylvania the great horned owl is thought to be its chief predator. Nests are often dug out by skunks, raccoons, badgers and opossums.

Other dangers include road traffic, especially in spring when roadside grass greens up first and draws rabbits to the verges, as well as farm machinery, lawn mowers, harsh winters and disease. Cottontails can carry tularemia, a bacterial disease sometimes called “rabbit fever” that can also infect people, which is one good reason never to handle wild rabbits.

Conservation status. The IUCN Red List classifies the eastern cottontail as Least Concern. It is abundant over an enormous range, adapts well to farmland and suburbs and has benefited from forest clearance. Local populations can decline when hedgerows, brush and old fields are removed, but the species as a whole is not threatened.

Its success can cause problems for other animals. In New England, the spread of the introduced eastern cottontail, together with the loss of young, shrubby forest, has contributed to the decline of the native New England cottontail. In Italy it is regarded as an invasive species that may compete with native hares and spread disease.

Myths and facts

Myth: rabbits are rodents. Rabbits and hares are lagomorphs, a separate order of mammals with an extra pair of small upper incisors. Their nearest relatives are the pikas.

Myth: a mother rabbit abandons babies that people have touched. Cottontail mothers do not reject young because of human scent. A nest that looks deserted is usually normal, because the mother visits only briefly. The kindest thing is to leave it alone and keep pets away.

Myth: cottontails are just small hares. Hares, such as jackrabbits, give birth to furred young with open eyes on open ground, while cottontail young start life blind in a hidden nest. Learn more in rabbit vs hare.

Relationship with people

For many people in the United States and Canada, the eastern cottontail is the most familiar wild mammal, seen nibbling clover on lawns at dusk. Gardeners know it as a visitor to vegetable patches, and naturalists value it as a sign of healthy edge habitat and as food for hawks, owls and foxes.

The cottontail also has a long history in North American culture. Rabbit trickster figures appear in many Native American stories, and the cottontail is the inspiration for characters such as Peter Cottontail. Watching cottontails from a distance, without disturbing nests or young, is an easy way to enjoy wildlife close to home.