Cottontails thrive in Tehachapi in 2006
Cottontails thrive in Tehachapi in 2006
By: Jon Hammond
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Posted by editor Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
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0 responses 0 comments This year was not an outstanding one for wildflowers, but our late rains in March seem to have made 2006 a banner year for cottontail rabbits in the Tehachapi area.
Many animal populations ranging from certain insects to many mammals are cyclical in nature — their numbers rise and fall (sometimes dramatically) depending on the weather, food availability and other factors.
Though mistakenly considered rodents by some people, cottontail rabbits and jackrabbits belong to an order known as Lagomorpha and their fertility is closely tied to the quality and quantity of available food plants. When nutritious forage plants are abundant, rabbits may have six babies per litter. In times of drought or hardship, female rabbits may have only two babies per litter or even suspend reproduction entirely until conditions improve.
This year, conditions have been favorable and the cottontails have been prolific. The species most common in our area is Audubon’s Cottontail (Sylvilagus audobonii), though we also have the smaller, darker, more reclusive Brush Rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmani) which lives at higher elevations and is seldom far from the cover of Great Basin sagebrush and chaparral.
Rather than being strictly nocturnal (active at night) or diurnal (active during daylight), cottontails are considered crepuscular, which means they are most active during the twilight hours of early morning and late evening. I encounter them on a daily basis for I too love sunrise and sunset, when the sun is low on the horizons and the light is rich and golden.
The Nüwa (Kawaiisu) Indian people of the Tehachapi Mountains call cottontails ta-vuts-si and they hunted them traditionally, for cottontails were an important source of food and even more vitally, they were the source of the thick rabbitskin blankets that kept the Nüwa warm and alive throughout the winter months.
The rabbitskin pelts were cut into strips that were twisted so that only the fur was showing, and then these ropes of rabbitskin were sewn together so that the blankets had soft fur on both sides.
Unlike some rabbit species, cottontails don’t favor burrows and spend most of their time above ground. The exception is when a female is raising her young, but even then she generally prefers to make her nest in a brush pile, rock pile, beneath old scrap lumber and plywood or even beneath an outbuilding.
Wherever she chooses to shelter her young, the mother rabbit makes her nest incredibly soft and cozy by pulling fur from her belly (it loosens naturally as her gestation period ends) and using it to line the shallow impression where the babies are born.
Rabbits give birth after just 30 days to young that are nearly naked, blind and totally helpless. The babies grow quickly, however, and may start venturing outside their hidden nursery when they are just 3 weeks old.
They must use great caution: rabbits have been called “The Prince of a Thousand Enemies” because so many predators hold them in high esteem as a food source. Snakes, hawks, owls, foxes, bobcats, coyotes and mountain lions are just some of the predators that cherish rabbit in their diet.
Rabbits themselves are strict herbivores who favor tasty, leafy green vegetation (just ask a Tehachapi gardener!) but do not browse and chew bark as much as their cousins the jackrabbits.
So enjoy the sight of cottontails cautiously grazing and playing in the early morning hours, for this is a great year to see them.
Have a good week.
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