Trivia

Jackrabbits are powerful jumpers.

A twenty inch adult can leap twenty feet in a single bound.

Jackrabbits are actually hares, not rabbits. The black-tailed jackrabbit is long-legged and lean, about 17-31 inches, and weighs 3-7 pounds. Its fur is buff-colored to blend in with the arid environment. Its relatively long tail has a black stripe, and its long brown ears have black tips. The white-tailed jackrabbit is 18-22 inches long and weighs 5-10 pounds. It is a brownish gray color in the summer and white or pale gray in the winter. Its tail is nearly always white.

Jackrabbits are primarily nocturnal and come alive as night falls. During the day, they use shrubs and/or shallow burrows for cover. They may lie crouched in “forms” they’ve made in the grass by using the same spot many times. On warm days they relax in the shade of a small bush or fence post and spend the day snoozing and grooming themselves. They feed mostly on needle-and-threadgrass, yarrow, turpentine springparsley, and tumblemustard. They depend heavily on shrubs such as sagebrush for protective cover. Jackrabbits are a sagebrush obligate species, meaning they need sagebrush to survive. Black-tailed jackrabbits are the principal prey of golden eagles and are an important food source for coyotes, common ravens, the great horned owl, long-eared owl, barn owl, ferruginous hawk, Swainson’s hawk, and red-tailed hawk. Humans also are a predator of jackrabbits. White-tailed jackrabbits occur in sagebrush/bunchgrass habitats, generally at higher elevations than black-tailed jackrabbits. Their diet consists primarily of forbs during summer months and shrubs in the winter.