The Mountain Cottontail or Nuttall's Cottontail (Sylvilagus nuttallii) is a species of mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

 in the Leporidae

Leporidae

Leporids are the approximately 50 species of rabbits and hares which form the family Leporidae. The leporids, together with the pikas, constitute the mammalian order Lagomorpha. Leporids differ from pikas in having short furry tails, and elongated ears and hind legs...

 family. It is found in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Description

Mountain (Nuttall's) Cottontail is a small rabbit but its size is relatively large for the genus. Hind legs are long; the feet are densely covered with long hair. Ears are rounded at the tips and relatively short; the inner surfaces are noticeably haired.It has pale brown fur on the back, a distinct pale brown nape on the back of the head, black-tipped ears, a white gray tail, and a white underside. A smaller size, the brown nape on the back of the head distinguish this cottontail from the Snowshoe Hare.

Range

This species is confined to the inter mountain area of North America. It ranges from just above the Canadian border south to Arizona and New Mexico, and from the foothills of the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and west to the eastern slopes of the Cascade-Sierra Nevada Range.

Diet

Mountain Cottontail diet is made up in large part of grass

Grass

Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...

es such as wheatgrass

Wheatgrass (disambiguation)

Wheatgrass may refer to:* Wheatgrass, grass, juice, tablet or powder of the young common wheat plant, grown for human consumption* Agropyron, a genus known as crested-wheat grasses* Elymus, a genus of wild rye, sometimes called wheatgrass...

es, needle-and-thread

Hesperostipa comata

Hesperostipa comata, commonly known as needle-and-thread grass, is a species of grass native to North America, especially the western third. It has a wide distribution spanning from northern Canada to Mexico.-Description:...

, Indian ricegrass

Indian ricegrass

Oryzopsis hymenoides is a perennial cool-season bunchgrass. It is native to western North America east of the Cascades from British Columbia and Alberta south to southern California, northeastern Mexico, and Texas...

, cheatgrass brome

Drooping Brome

Drooping brome or Cheat Grass, Bromus tectorum, is a grass native to Europe, southwestern Asia and northern Africa.-Description:...

, bluegrass

Poa

Poa is a genus of about 500 species of grasses, native to the temperate regions of both hemispheres. Common names include meadow-grass , bluegrass , tussock , and speargrass. "Poa" is Greek for fodder...

es, and bottlebrush squirreltail

Elymus elymoides

Elymus elymoides is a species of wild rye known by the common name squirreltail. This grass is native to most of North America west of the Mississippi River. It occurs in a number of ecosystems, from alpine forest to desert sage scrub to valley grassland.-Description:Elymus elymoides is a perennial...

. Dependent on the area the diet may include quantities of shrubs such as Big sagebrush

Artemisia tridentata

Artemisia tridentata is a shrub or small tree from the family Asteraceae. Some botanists treat it in the segregate genus Seriphidium, as S. tridentatum W. A. Weber, but this is not widely followed...

, rabbitbrush

Rabbitbrush

Rabbitbrush is a common name for plants in two related genera of the family Asteraceae:* Chrysothamnus — most species, including Green Rabbitbrush* Ericameria — Gray and Parry's Rabbitbrush...

, and saltbush

Atriplex

Atriplex is a plant genus of 100-200 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache . The genus is quite variable and widely distributed. It includes many desert and seashore plants and halophytes, as well as plants of moist environments...

es. As food source becomes more limited in the winter months the diet may turn to more wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

y plants such as bark

Bark

Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner...

, and twig

Twig

A twig is a small thin terminal branch of a woody plant. Twigs are critically important in identification of trees, shrubs and vines, especially in wintertime. The buds on the twig are an important diagnostic characteristic, as are the abscission scars where the leaves have fallen away...

s.

Reproduction

The nest of S. nuttallii is reported to be a cup-like cavity lined with fur and dried grass. The top of the nest is coved with fur, grass, and small sticks, probably placed there by the female. The average fetal sex ratio in Oregon was 1 male to 1.05 females; the adult sex ratio was 1 male to 1.18 females. Depending on location, the breeding season will vary but ranges through February to July, and possibly later in warmer climates. Mean litter sizes average 4–6 kits per litter. The gestation period for this cottontail is 28–30 days, and the female may be bred during postpartum estrous.

Behavior

Most activity for these rabbits is before 0900 and after 1600 hours. They are not a social species and spend the largest quantity of time performing non social behavior. The most common social behavior seen is during reproductive actions or courting. Over 50% of the time the Mountain cottontail is active it is feeding.