Small rabbit with feet and ears shorter than a jack rabbit or snowshoe
hare. Fur remains dark grayish brown in winter. Short fluffy tail
prominent while running. The snowshoe hare in its summer coat
resembles the cottontail. However, the hare has larger hind feet and
runs with great bounding leaps, in contrast to the short, rapid hops
of the cottontail. Total length 16 inches. Ear length slightly over 2
inches.
The common little cottontail frequents the woods and valleys of the
montane zone. The prolific mating habits are necessary to maintain their
numbers, since they are heavily preyed on by many carnivorous animals. A
single female may produce as many as 25 young during a year, in four or
five matings. Cottontails, like the hares and jackrabbits, are subject
to periodic diseases which may cause their virtual disappearance from a
region. However, those rabbits surviving the epidemics will suddenly
start to increase, and in a few years the area will again contain
hundreds. These sudden changes in populations may occur regularly every
five or ten years.