Cottontail Rabbit
Working With Wildlife
Number 7
HABITAT REQUIREMENTS
Cottontails live throughout the South
from bottomlands and marshes to
the highest mountain balds. They
thrive in openings wherever shrubs,
grasses, and forbs dominate.
Cottontails are commonly found in
old homesites, abandoned orchards,
broom sedge fields, sumac patches,
honeysuckle thickets, and brush
piles.
Food
Cottontails diet consists of a variety
of plants from many sources.
Succulent herbaceous materials,
buds, bark, fruit, seeds, and foliage
of woody plants are the mainstay of
the cottontail rabbit.
Distributed in furtherance
of the acts of Congress of
May 8 and June 30, 1914.
Employment and program
opportunities are offered to
all people regardless of
race, color, national origin,
sex, age, or disability.
North Carolina State
University, North Carolina
A & T State University, US
Department of Agriculture,
and local governments
Rabbit Foods
Red Clover
Alfalfa
Kentucky Bluegrass
Soybean
Cereal Grains
Gallberry
Korean Lespedeza
Dandelion
New Jersey Tea
Locust
Sassafras
Sumac
Cover
Cottontails prefer open areas with low
ground cover of shrubs and
herbaceous vegetation. Tunnel holes,
briar patches, and brush piles are
needed for escape cover. Nests are
usually in grass or herbaceous cover.
Interspersion of cover types, or small
areas in close proximity, is ideal for
rabbits.
Cottontails are a food source for many
mammalian and avian predators.
Cottontails can generally withstand
heavy predation if suitable habitat and
cover is present.
Cottontail Rabbit
Nests are dug in the ground and lined
with grass and loose fur. Nests are
relatively small, about 4" across and 4"
deep. The female rabbit, or doe
typically has 2 or 3 litters per season
with 3-8 rabbits per litter. After
brooding, the nest is abandoned.
North Carolina
Cooperative Extension Service
North Carolina State University
College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
College of Forest Resources
