Report by: Dylan-Miguel Arce Jaeger
The
White-tailed Jackrabbit has long ears, a long tail and bright yellow eyes. Its
coat is white only during the winter months. In the summer, this rabbit has a beautiful
grey coat, white ears and a white tail. The tips of its ears are colored black
the whole year through.
The
jackrabbit builds its home in the sagebrush and grasslands of the south Okanagan. In the summer, shelters are built in spots near
rocks, shrubs or even in old badger holes. When the winter snow arrives, the
jackrabbit digs burrows into the snow drifts. The White-tailed Jackrabbit is a
very secretive creature. It only goes out of its home at night.
This
jackrabbit likes to eat plants like grass, twigs, roots and especially lettuce
from a farmer's garden.
Female
jackrabbits have their babies in the early summer. There are about four babies
in each litter. Baby rabbits, called leverets, are born with lots of hair. They
can open their eyes and even run as soon as they are born. The mother
jackrabbit feeds the leverets milk until they are five or six weeks old. By
then the babies are old enough to eat plants.
The
White-tailed Jackrabbits can run very fast. They can also swim. It is important
for jackrabbits to move quickly so that they do not turn into dinner for a
bobcat, eagle or skunk. These jackrabbits are endangered because their homes
have been destroyed by humans, and cows are eating a lot of their food. The
winters of the Thompson-Okanagan are very cold for
the jackrabbits too.
Similar Species Black-tailed Jackrabbit has black on tail continuing
up rump. Snowshoe Hare is smaller, dark brown in summer.
Breeding Up to 4 litters per year, each of 1–6 young (average
4); born late April, early June, July, and August–September, after gestation of
a month or more.
Habitat Barren, grazed, or cultivated lands; grasslands.
Range
Discussion One of the least social of hares, the White-tailed
Jackrabbit tends to be solitary except during the mating season, when three or
four individuals may group together. A nocturnal animal, it hides in forms
during the day. In winter, it may hide by day in hollows in the snow connected
by burrows. Traveling in 12- to 20-foot (3.7–6 m) leaps, this jackrabbit can
maintain a speed of 35 mph (55 km/h), with spurts up to 45 mph (75 km/h). When
cornered, it will swim, dog-paddling with all four feet.
Jackrabbit