Jack Rabbit, maybe someone here can answer this?

[Changeling]

I followed what you guys have said about Jack Rabbits and was wondering WHY there isn't any of them back east like in Maryland where I'm from. The climate can't be as harsh as where some of you guys live, so I was just wondering?

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

We don't like to share!:kidding:

Do you have snowshoe hares? There similar . . . cottontails taste better anyways!

[Hickory]

Unlike Mexicans, jack rabbits can't swim the river.

[oneokie]

Disease, predators.

[quilbilly]

Jackrabbits are an open country creature that depends on distance to run and speed. They don't do well where they don't have room to run. We used to have lots of them on the deserts of central Washington State then Mt. St Helens wiped them out with the ashfall. I miss them since a desert without jacks isn't right. They only now are coming back into the ashfall zone

[roverboy]

Unlike Mexicans, jack rabbits can't swim the river.

You might have something there.:redneck:

[Changeling]

Jackrabbits are an open country creature that depends on distance to run and speed. They don't do well where they don't have room to run. We used to have lots of them on the deserts of central Washington State then Mt. St Helens wiped them out with the ashfall. I miss them since a desert without jacks isn't right. They only now are coming back into the ashfall zone

I see what you are saying but that really doesn't make sense, cotton tails out hear depend on speed totally to escape danger/death!

I just thought someone might know the answer.

[Matt_G]

I followed what you guys have said about Jack Rabbits...
Got a link? I missed this and I'm interested in reading it.

[quilbilly]

Cottontail are adapted to be quick and maneuverable to escape in a relatively brushy small area. Jacks are adapted to open areas were they can make the big leaps and quick turns at high speed within a home range of up to a square mile. In the areas I hunt in Northern Nevada, for instance, the jacks are found out on the steppe where the plants are sparse and less than 3 feet high. The cottontails are found in riparian areas with high brush and sheltered gullies of black sage that may be 6 feet high where you can barely walk through. There are exceptions, obviously, and I can't estimate how many times in 60 years I have met jacks and cottontails in the wrong places.
Each is adapted to a different ecological niche.
Both seem to have the same 7 year disease cycle that causes populations to crash and take the bobcats with them.
This all makes me hungry for a cottontail dinner!

[scrapcan]

I would tell you that it is an evolutionary path that has created a niche for their abilities, but then there are far too many who do not believe in that mode of thinking. In that Light one must just accept that it is so because it is.

The Lepus species are adept at eating vegetation that is high in lignin, they will eat things that other hares, rabbits, or other mammals do not find edible. They also fare well with little to no cover. They do not burrow, you will find them with a small hollow behind a fence post,tall grass/shrub, etc...

There are several members of the Lepus species; some that I know of are the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), the blacktailed jack (Lepus californicus), and the whitetailed jack (Lepus townsendii). Here in my area we have mainly blacktailed. We do not have cottontails at our house. They maybe better to eat, but I would rather have jacks around than the fuzzy butt cottontails. The jacks are solitary and cause less issues than the hoard of cottontails that others have.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

We actually have both blacktail & cottontails . . . in the same area . . . shot one of each in same day!

[scrapcan]

oops, I did not mean that cottontails are not here in the area. They are just not at my house! They are a nuisance and they taste good. Not a good combination for them.

[Changeling]

Thanks guys for your thoughts on the subject, I have found it very interesting. It still doesn't make a lot of sense though, but then there is a lot of things that don't make sense to me, LOL!

[quilbilly]

One place jacks do exceeding well almost anywhere in the country where snow doesn't get too deep is airports.

[Just Duke]

We used to hunt Jacks right where they put the new DI airport in the 70's.

[ammohead]

They won't go far enough north to go around the headwaters of the Mississippi and they won't swim across.

ammohead

[flounderman]

I have seen a few jacks in southern wisconsin. the river freezes over in the winter.

[home in oz]

I have both on our land in Eastern Kansas.

Only have seen the one Jack.