| Photo Information |
Copyright: Angelina Deans (angybone)
![Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1169 W: 14 N: 2271]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-s-g.gif) (7204) |
| Genre: Animals |
| Medium: Color |
| Date Taken: 2005-06-01 |
| Categories: Mammals |
| Exposure: f/3.5, 1/160 seconds |
| More Photo Info: [view] |
| Photo Version: Original Version |
| Date Submitted: 2005-06-01 22:25 |
| Viewed: 988 |
| Points: 2 |
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
I hope I've identified this little dude properly. I was out taking photos of storm damage from last night and this little cutie was sitting next to a cattleguard. I stepped out of the pickup and approached...he or she never budged! I was afraid it was wounded or sick, but after I took a few photos, it just turned around and hopped into the Texas wildflowers. What a wonderful experience!
Desert Cottontail
Sylvilagus auduboni
Cottontails are named after their tail, which is shaped like a cottony ball.
A female may bear young year round (California) or up to eight months of the year. She may bear twenty to thirty young in four to five litters. A normal litter has two to six young. The young are weaned at two weeks old, and they leave the nest area three weeks after birth.
Cottontails are herbivores, and they eat a wide variety of plants, including grasses, forbs, shrubs and even cacti; however, ninety percent of their diet is grass. Cottontails will forage on domestic crops, even the bark of fruit trees. They get most of their water from either the plants they eat or dew that forms on the plants. When cottontails feed, their ever-growing incisors cut clean slices through twigs or plants at a forty five-degree angle. Other browsers, like deer or bighorn, chew the tips and create a ragged edges.
Cottontails are coprophagic, meaning they eat their own feces. Since grass is difficult to digest, the rabbits eat the first-formed set of pellets after a meal. Additional nutrition is extracted during the second digestive process. Pellets from the second set are very hard, fibrous and lack nutritive value.
When alarmed, a cottontail can run up to twenty miles per hour in a zigzag pattern to escape predators. Often, the cottontail runs to a protective location like a burrow or thicket. If cornered by a small predator, like a weasel, a cottontail may "bowl over" the predator and give it a kick with its powerful hind legs as well. A cottontail may also freeze when danger lurks, and scrunch down to blend into its surroundings.
Cottontails have been known to swim or climb trees when pursued by prey.
The cottontail's tail functions as an alarm signal. When a rabbit raises its tail, the large white patch of fur on the bottom is exposed, serving as a warning signal to other cottontails.
One characteristic of the lagomorphs is that there is a latticework of openings on each side of the skull. These are called "fenestrations." The word is from the Latin word "fenestra," meaning "window."
Desert cottontails are more "colonial" than jackrabbits. They may not interact with their neighbors, but they tolerate closer neighbors than do jackrabbits. Desert cottontails rarely stray far from their natal or birthplace area.
Copied from http://www.desertusa.com/mag00/apr/papr/rabbit.html |
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