Thoughtsnin

• As with all hares, blacktails rely on speed and camouflage (along with the characteristic 'freeze' behavior) for their defense. When flushed from cover, a blacktail can spring 20 feet at a bound and reach top speeds of 30-35 mph over a zigzag course.
• Animal Behavior. Rabbits and Hares. What are behavioral adaptations for a black tailed jack rabbit? Wiki User November 17, 2012 5:01PM. Related Questions.

The black-tailed jackrabbit, the only jack rabbit occurring in Oklahoma, is not really a rabbit but a hare. It has a buff gray body above, white below, and a black stripe down the center of its back. Its most distinguishable features are its black-tipped ears, which measure between five to seven inches in length, as well as its black-top tail.

The white-sided jackrabbit (Lepus callotis), also known as the Mexican hare, is a jackrabbit found in a limited range in North America, from southern New Mexico to northwestern and central Mexico. The animal is considered threatened in New Mexico, with its numbers in decline in recent years.

Habitat[edit]

The white-sided jackrabbit inhabits plateaus at high elevations, including the grassy plains of southwestern New Mexico and the open plains of the southern Mexican tableland. It avoids areas of hills or mountains. It prefers level lands full of grasses and also avoids areas with trees and shrubs.

Description[edit]

The white-sided jackrabbit's body length ranges from 16 to 30 in (41 to 76 cm) long. Its tail grows to lengths of 1 to 4 in (2.5 to 10.2 cm). Its legs grow from 4 to 6 in (10 to 15 cm) in the front and the back legs can grow from 6 to 12 in (15 to 30 cm) long. The white-sided jackrabbit's ears grow 2 to 6 in (5.1 to 15.2 cm) when fully grown. The fore paws have five toes while the back paws have four. All toes end in sturdy claws. Some sexual dimorphism is present in this species; females are generally larger than the males.

The dorsal pelage of the white-sided jackrabbit is short and coarse. The color is pale cinnamon color heavily mixed with black. The underparts are white with traces of colored patches in front of the thighs. The tail has black hairs tipped with white on the upper surface and is all white on the underside. The sides are distinguishable from other species in that they are pure white, the source of their name. The rump and thighs are also white and lined with a few black hairs. A median black line concealed by sooty, brownish, and white-tipped hairs divides the rump. The limbs are white, but their outer surfaces are stained a buff color. The gular pouch is also buffy while the sides of the neck and shoulders become more ochraceous in color. The head is a cream buff color, mixed with black, with whitish areas around the sides of the eyes. The ears are covered with short yellowish-brown hairs that are mixed with black anteriorly and white posteriorly. The apex of the ear is white-tipped. Below the apex of the ear is a tuft of black hair. The long fringes on the anterior edge of the ear are ochraceous buff, while the fringes of the tip of the ear and posterior edge are white. The inner surface of the ear is almost bare except for a dusky spot on the posterior border. The nape is ochraceous buff in color.

The winter pelage of the white-sided jackrabbit is iron gray on the rump, back, and outside of the hind legs. The front of the hind legs and the tops of the feet are white. The front of the fore legs and top of the fore feet range from a pale gray to a dull iron-gray. The median black line of the rump is not strongly distinguishable and does not extend much further than the base of the tail. The top, sides, and tip of the tail are black, while the underside is two-thirds white and one-third black. The top and sides of the head and back are dark-pinkish buff overlaid with black. The nape is usually black. The ears are dark bluff, black, and white. The front border of the ears are fringed with buff or ochraceous buff hairs, and the posterior border and tip are white. The underside of the neck is dark grayish bluff and the remaining underparts, including the flanks, are white.

Reproduction[edit]

The breeding season of the white-sided jackrabbit is a minimum of 18 weeks, occurring from mid-April to mid-August. The average number of young per litter is around two. The young tend to have a soft, woolly coat in early life and attain sexual maturity at a rapid rate. Breeding in L. callotis does not begin within the first calendar year following its birth.

Behavior[edit]

Most activity of the white-sided jackrabbit occurs during the night or at dusk, particularly on clear nights with bright moonlight. Its activity may be limited by cloud cover, precipitation, and wind, but temperature has little effect. Its escape behavior consists of alternately flashing its white sides when running away. The white-sided jackrabbit, when escaping, makes rather long, high leaps. When startled by or alarmed by a predator, it leaps straight upwards while extending the hind legs and flashing the white sides. In its resting position, a white-sided jackrabbit is camouflaged with its surroundings. The long hind legs and feet are adapted for speed, giving the animal lift and an ability to run in a zig-zag fashion that surpasses its pursuers. The long ears serve to locate sound, as well as regulate temperature when they are raised like a fan to catch passing breezes in hot conditions. The eyes, like those of most nocturnal or crepuscular animals, are laterally arranged, giving them a complete field of vision (360°). As a result, approaching danger can be perceived in advance.

A conspicuous trait of the white-sided jackrabbit is its tendency to be found in pairs, usually one male and one female. Its pair bond is most evident during the breeding season. After establishment of the pair bond, the male defends the pair from other intruding males. The purpose of such pair bonds may be to keep the sexes together in areas of low density. The members of the pair are usually within 15–20 ft of each other and run together when approached by intruders. The pair bond may not be broken during pregnancy.

The white-sided jackrabbit constructs and uses shelter forms averaging 15 in (38 cm) in length, 20 in (51 cm) in width, and 7–8 in (18–20 cm) in depth. The shelter form is usually located in clumps of grass and surrounded by dense stands of tobosa grass. The white-sided jackrabbit may also occupy underground shelters, but this behavior is rare. It forages by chewing and pulling grass blades near the ground until they are either uprooted or broken off. The food is ingested by chewing the grass sticking out of the mouth, with the head raised and the body sitting in a crouched position. The fore paws are not used in feeding except to brace against the ground as the grass is bitten off or uprooted. When eating certain nutgrass, however, the fore paws are used to excavate the bulbous tubers, leaving behind oval foraging depressions in which fecal pellets are often deposited.

The white-sided jackrabbit has three types of vocalizations. The alarm or fear reaction consists of a high-pitched scream. Another sound, emitted by males in a pair when approached by an outside intruding male, is a series of harsh grunts until the intruder leaves or is chased away. A third vocalization, consisting of a trilling grunt, is heard during the sexual chase of the white-sided jackrabbit, but it is not known which member of the pair makes this sound.

Food[edit]

The diet of the white-sided jackrabbit consists primarily of grasses including buffalograss, tobosagrass, fiddleneck, wolftail, blue grama, vine mesquite, ring muhly, wooly Indian wheat, and Wright buckwheat. The significant nongrass item found in their diets was sedge nutgrass.

Human interaction and impact[edit]

Although many species of jackrabbits and hares are considered pests because they damage crops, fields, and orchards, the white-sided jackrabbit is usually not considered a pest and has no known adverse effects on human property. Many species are also sought after for their meat and fur. This is also untrue of the white-sided jackrabbit and it is protected in most of its habitat region.

A 2011 study by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish determined that the primary cause of decline of the white sided jackrabbit in New Mexico was due to road kill caused by nighttime US Border Patrol traffic.^[3]

Conservation efforts[edit]

The white-sided jackrabbit is considered endangered throughout its range in Mexico, and is listed as threatened by New Mexico, where it occurs in the southwest, but enjoys no federal protection in the United States. A 2011 study by the state of New Mexico estimated the population to be 45 individuals. The white-sided jackrabbit commonly comes into contact with agriculture. As a result, the overgrazing of domestic livestock may be one of the factors contributing to its decline and the apparent replacement by the black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus), which has been highly adaptable to these habitat changes. Prospects for the survival of the white-sided jackrabbit in many parts of its range are considered poor at best.

Black Tailed Jackrabbit Facts

Subspecies[edit]

The two subspecies of this jackrabbit are:

• L. c. callotis
• L. c. gaillardi

References[edit]

1. ^Hoffman, R.S.; Smith, A.T. (2005). 'Order Lagomorpha'. In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 196. ISBN978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC62265494.
2. ^Brown, D.E. & Smith, A.T. 2019. Lepus callotis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T11792A45177499. Downloaded on 19 July 2019.
3. ^http://www.wildlife.state.nm.us/conservation/share_with_wildlife/documents/T32P2-11ApH-Traphagen.pdf

T32P2-11ApH-Traphagen.pdf(PDF), retrieved 2013-01-11

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Jackrabbits (Lepus spp.) have long ears, long hind legs, are larger than rabbits, and live in western and central North America. They are hares rather than rabbits, bearing fully furred young with open eyes and not constructing burrows for homes. They eat plants, including cacti, each jackrabbit eating 1/2 to 1 pound of plant material daily. They can have four litters of two to eight young per year.

Jackrabbits

Jackrabbits are nocturnal, feeding at night and retreating to shallow depressions they dig for themselves, called forms, in the shelter of shrubs or other vegetation. They occupy a wide variety of habitats, from arid desert scrub, sagebrush desert, prairies, northern plains and even alpine-tundra areas. They are able to survive by eating a wide variety of plant materials, including grasses, sedges, different kinds of leafy annual and perennial plants, shrubs and succulents like cacti and yucca. They also eat crops such as alfalfa, barley and winter wheat.

Antelope Jackrabbit

The antelope jackrabbit (Lepus alleni) inhabits desert scrub and grassland in southern Arizona and northern Mexico. Well-suited for their environment, they have reflective yellow-brown fur to reduce their heat load -- large ears that act as heat radiators -- and don't need to drink free water, getting all the moisture they need from their food. During the dry season, they eat mostly mesquite leaves (Prosopis spp.) and cacti, but when rains allow other plants to grow, they eat grass. Antelope jackrabbits can run fast to avoid predators, and flash a white rump patch while running to confuse predators. Pronghorn antelopes (Antilocapra americana) also have this behavior, which gave this jackrabbit its common name.

Black-Tailed Jackrabbit

The black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) is the most common jackrabbit in the western United States. You can tell it from the other kinds of jackrabbits by its black-topped tail. It weighs 3 to 7 pounds, and is grayish-brown with black-tipped ears. Fast runners, they reach 35 mph at top speed and can jump in 20-foot bounds. They inhabit short- and long-grass regions in the Midwest, sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) scrub in the Great Basin and mesquite-prickly pear areas in the Sonoran Desert. In Kansas, black-tailed jackrabbits eat prickly pear (Opuntia spp.) fruits from early autumn until freezing weather. Seeds pass through the intestinal tract into the feces, and jackrabbits are thought responsible for spread of prickly pears in prairie rangeland. They also eat the pads during times of drought.

Jack Rabbit Wine

White-Tailed Jackrabbit

Running Warehouse

The white-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) is native to the north central and northwestern states and into Canada. It is the largest jackrabbit, weighing from 6 to 10 pounds. It turns from brownish-gray to white in winter in the parts of its range where snowfall occurs. White-tailed jackrabbits can reach 40 mph running on all fours, and can also hop like a kangaroo. They live mostly in grassland habitats, or mixed shrub-grasslands, avoiding dense timber areas. They prefer more densely vegetated areas for cover but graze in more open areas. In short-grass prairie of Colorado, white-tailed jackrabbits were found to also eat fruits of prickly pear cactus, but in addition ate fruits of a pincushion cactus (Mammillaria vivipara), perhaps helping this cactus in seed dispersal as well.

References (3)

• Wild Mammals of North America: Biology, Management and Conservation; George A. Feldhamer, Bruce C. Thompson, Joseph A. Chapman

About the Author

Cathryn Chaney has worked as a gardening writer since 2002. Her horticultural experience working in the nursery industry informs her garden articles, especially those dealing with arid landscaping and drought-tolerant gardening. Chaney also writes poetry, which has appears in 'Woman's World' magazine and elsewhere. Chaney graduated from the University of Arizona in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in English.

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Black Tailed Jackrabbit Diet

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