The desert cottontail, also known as Audubon's cottontail, is a species of rabbit found in the southwestern U.S., most of Mexico, and a swath of the U.S. from Montana and North Dakota, near the Canadian border, to Texas at the Mexican border. There are 11 subspecies and I was not readily able to find the differences of the subspecies to try and identify the subspecies of this particular desert cottontail.
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| Desert cottontail in Badlands NP, South Dakota. |
They are: 13 to 17 inches long, weigh up to 3.25 pounds, have ears that are 3 to 4 inches long, are light gray and brown with a whitish belly, and have a rounded tail that is white underneath.
We saw this particular rabbit in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Cottontails are very common, but it is unusual to get as close to one of them as we got to this one.
I had a few rabbit pelts when I was a kid that looked an awful lot like this bunny. They sure are cute.
ReplyDeleteI remember those pelts we had as kids. Mine was white. We've had an explosion in population of these bunnies in our area in the last few years-I'm guessing the Dakotas have, too..
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