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Brushpiles protect rabbits from harsh winter weather, as well as predators. |
Cottontail country
Get big rewards when you set aside a little space for cotton-tailed rabbits.
Heavy-antlered bucks and rope-bearded gobblers get all the attention when it comes to managing land for wildlife and hunting. But small game offers ample rewards, too.
One of the easiest small-game animals to promote is the cotton-tailed rabbit. When big game seasons are over, a little rabbit hunting is just what a house- or cabin-bound hunter needs to invigorate a crisp winter day. Plus, rabbits are the perfect quarry for introducing newcomers to the hunt.
The cottontail equation is simple: food + escape/winter cover + nesting sites = rabbits.
Considering their homebody ways (a home range of five to 10 acres), encouraging rabbits doesn’t take much effort, and the approaches mesh with most game management.
Understanding Cottontails
Cottontails are creatures of brushy edges — the margins between cover and open areas. We’re all familiar with the jokes about rabbits’ reproductive skills, but they are real. A female (doe) cottontail may produce up to five litters a year. Most litters average four young. Does born in early spring may bear a litter in their first year.
You might think rabbits would overrun the land. But cottontails are designed as prey for hawks, owls, foxes, coyotes and human hunters. All this pressure keeps rabbit populations in check even though they reproduce like, well, rabbits.
Cottontails are mainly nocturnal, spending their days secluded in their “form” (hideaway) or other nook in the brush or grass. In early evening, rabbits hop out to openings to feed. Preferred foods include tender leaves, buds, stems, weeds, grasses, forbs, clover, grain crop residue (such as corn, soybeans and wheat) and other plant matter. Soon after dawn, rabbits retreat back
to cover.
Spring, summer and fall are times of plenty for cottontails. But winter is a concern. Is there enough thick, brushy cover to protect cottontails from predators and the elements?
Food
If you’re planting clover for whitetails, you’re already providing greens for rabbits. All varieties of clover are attractive to cottontails. Browsing cottontails won’t appreciably damage the plants, just as browsing deer don’t. The leaves regenerate.
If you have open areas or meadows, grasses like crabgrass are favorite rabbit foods, too. Crabgrass takes care of itself. Dandelions are important food, as are sedges, forbs and other succulent greens that sprout in disturbed areas.
In winter, woody plants become a staple. Raspberry, blackberry, sumac, honeysuckle, plum, young aspen, seedling birch and other saplings and sprouts are key. Rabbits will eat the buds and chew the tender bark. Grains are important winter forage. A harvested but unplowed field or foodplot is best. Rabbits will glean a few kernels of what is left behind — corn, wheat, soybeans, milo and other small grains.
Escape and Winter Cover
Because they consume such a wide variety of foods, eating is not usually a worry for cottontails. But rabbits cannot survive without escape cover and winter cover.
There are many ways to create cottontail cover. Many of these methods relate to doing a little less clean up after you work the land, and letting some odd or unused corners just “go wild.” Here are several approaches.
Leave old fencerows intact. Let these brushy edges grow. They make good cover for cottontails and songbirds, and they serve as travel corridors for deer and turkeys.
Think small. A corner here, an odd angle of land there, anywhere you let get “weedy and fallow” will help rabbits. Help things along with plantings of raspberry and blackberry canes, American plum, crabapples, sumac and other shrubs.
Create brushpiles. This can be the biggest cover-creating, rabbit-promoting activity you do.
Plant warm-season grasses. The sturdy, upright clumps associated with warm-season grasses (big and little bluestem, Indiangrass, switchgrass) give rabbits seclusion and cover to escape predators and shelter from the cold.
Nesting Sites
Rabbits need nesting sites for raising young to the ripe old age of 16 to 21 days before sending them out on their own. Grassy areas make superb early spring nesting sites when the stalks are the only relevant standing cover. Seed unused areas like roadsides, ditch banks, pond dams and gullies. Protect these areas from grazing, mowing and burning. Or do those activities rotationally, leaving some nesting cover standing each year.
A well-drained site is important for nesting, so young rabbits don’t drown in a rainstorm. Rabbits will occasionally excavate an old woodchuck or fox hole and use it for nesting. Brushpiles, junkpiles, briars and hedgerows also offer nesting opportunities.
Adding Rabbits
Most folks don’t manage their land specifically for rabbits. But you should include these wonderful small-game animals in your plans. With just a few additions and modifications to your approach, you can create a little oasis of cottontail country. — Tom Carpenter