Jackrabbits

Post date: May 31, 2016 5:54:32 PM

We have several jackrabbits as neighbors. I have to confess, even though they can be destructive on, for example, drip irrigation lines, I like them very much and they are among my favorite wild animals. A pair of them live just up canyon from our house, and often we can see them from the dining room sliding glass door, looking north. I'm not sure if they are a mated pair, or a parent and offspring, and can't tell the gender of either from so far away. They do all kinds of cute things, like play, and take dust baths, but I am not usually quick enough to get them on camera. Anyway, here are a couple short videos of one of them, washing his or her face, then scratching, then loping off. I love the way they lope, and they can be very fast when they need to be.

The Audubon book of North American mammals says the female has her young in shallow scrapes underneath shrubs, and she doesn't spend much time with them, returning to them only when nursing them. The jackrabbits, in spite of their name, are hares and the only kind of hare we have around here. They are much bigger than our cottontail rabbits. Hares are born furred with their eyes open (the books say) in contrast to rabbits which are born hairless and eyes closed.