ANR-636, Reprinted November 1996. By H. Lee Stribling, Extension Wildlife Scientist, Associate Professor, Zoology and Wildlife Science, Auburn University.

Cottontail Rabbit Management

Although not hunted as intensively as white-tailed deer, wild turkey, squirrels, or waterfowl, cottontail rabbits are an important game species in Alabama. Few other resident game animals are as adaptable or thrive as close to developed areas as the cottontail.

Life History

The breeding season for cottontails in Alabama extends from January through September. During that time, females (or "does") may mate several times, usually with a different male (or "buck") each time, and produce up to five litters. The gestation period usually lasts about 28 days.

Does give birth to one to eight (usually four) blind and thinly furred young called "bunnies." The young are born in nests that are built underground or under thick grass. The nests are lined with grasses and covered with fur from the female. Immediately after giving birth, does may breed again.

By 1 week of age, the eyes of young rabbits open. As early as 2 weeks after birth, they may venture from the nest and begin eating on their own. Care from the doe is complete by 18 to 21 days, and the young become totally independent.

Under ideal conditions, one pair of rabbits can multiply into twenty-five in less than a year. Although such production is unlikely in the wild, efficient reproduction is needed to offset the high annual mortality in cottontail populations. Their potential life span is 8 to 10 years, but few rabbits reach even 1 year of age.

In fact, the average life expectancy for cottontails is only 4 to 6 months. Only about 50 percent of those born can be expected to leave the nest. Of those that do, fewer than one-half survive until fall.

Cottontails move very little. In good habitat, daily and seasonal ranges are small. Although juveniles may disperse over 1 mile from nest sites, most individuals rarely range over more than 10 acres during their lifetime.

Habitat Needs

The cottontail rabbit occurs over a wide variety of habitat types and conditions. Good cottontail habitats include an abundance of well-distributed patches of brushy cover mixed with grassy fields and weedy areas. In Alabama, cottontails thrive where cropland, idle fields, hay fields, and cut-over forestland are all present in one area.

Like all other species of wildlife, cottontails require adequate food, shelter, and water to survive and reproduce. All of their habitat needs, however, must be provided over relatively small areas (about 10 acres).

Food. Cottontails feed almost entirely on plants. Animal matter, much of which is ingested incidentally while feeding on plants, makes up less than 1 percent of their total diet.

When available, leaves, buds, and stems of recently sprouted weeds and grasses are their preferred food items year-round. Bark, buds, and stems of woody plants are important food items during winter. Foliage and seeds of agricultural crops, particularly corn, soybeans, and wheat, are used during the entire year where available.

Cover. Cottontails spend most daylight hours resting in thick cover. Brushy fencerows,drains, honeysuckle thickets, blackberry patches, and brush piles serve as refuge and escape cover from predators.

Although cottontails nest in a wide variety of cover types, fields containing dense stands of low grasses provide their preferred nesting cover. Hay fields and lightly grazed pastures are good nest sites for cotton tails in Alabama. Nesting areas must be well drained to reduce losses to flooding.

Water. Cottontails occasionally drink surface water from sources such as streams and ponds, but they satisfy most of their water needs by feeding on succulent vegetation and drinking dew. In Alabama, the availability of surface water does not influence rabbit densities or distribution.

Management

To successfully manage land for cottontails, land owners must first identify needed habitat that is not present. Then they must provide what is missing or rearrange the habitat so that everything a cottontail needs is available within 10 acres.

Often, the abundance of a habitat type is much less important than its location relative to other habitat components. Successful management requires close mixing of food and cover. A number of management practices are available to landowners interested in providing habitat for cottontails.

Creating Cover. On most land in Alabama, particularly farmland, the lack of available escape cover limits rabbit populations. Providing escape or refuge cover is often the simplest and most effective method of encouraging abundant rabbit populations.

Fencerows, allowed to revert to brushy native vegetation, provide good cover, but building brush piles is usually the quickest method of establishing escape cover. Brush piles are easily built by piling limbs, small logs, or other solid debris over old rolls of wire or crisscrossed logs. Such coverts should measure at least 12 to 15 feet in diameter and stand 5 to 6 feet tall.

Distribute brush piles or other escape coverts 50 to 100 yards apart to ensure adequate availability. Most brush piles are useful for only 3 to 5 years before replacement is necessary. Replace rotting piles as needed or replace about one-fourth to one-third of all piles each year. Encourage the growth of native vegetation in and immediately around coverts by fertilizing brush piles in March with about 3 to 5 pounds of 13-13-13 per pile.

Providing Food. The cottontail's native foods are usually abundant in idle fields, open woodlands, and hay fields, but these foods may be supplemented by planting small multi-seasonal food plots. One food plot of 1/8 acre or more per 5 acres usually supports high densities of rabbits if planted near adequate cover. Relatively long, narrow, and irregularly shaped food plots are preferable to other shapes.

Cottontails readily eat clovers, vetches, corn, millets, peas, fescue, rye, wheat, and other small grains. Provide at least one good food source for each period of the year. For example, plant cowpeas and corn during spring and small grains during fall to provide year-round forage. If fescue is planted, be sure to use an "endophyte-free" variety, because other varieties can decrease cottontail reproduction.

Maintaining Habitat. Natural succession of plants and habitats must be considered and accounted for in any habitat-management program. If left undisturbed, fields grow into unsuitable habitat and, ultimately, into forests. Periodic mowing, burning, plowing, light grazing, or timber removal is necessary to maintain productive habitat for rabbits.

Hay fields should be mowed and fertilized to continue grass production. Leave portions of large hay fields unmowed during each mowing. Strips of idle fields should be burned, mowed, or plowed periodically so that all of the field is disturbed every 3 to 7 years.

In Alabama, woodlands made up of 50- to 100-percent pines need burning every 2 to 3 years during winter to perpetuate the growth and availability of native food plants for rabbits. Check with representatives from the Alabama Forestry Commission or your county Extension office to get advice on prescribed burning.