Black-Tailed Jackrabbit

Facts about Black-Tailed Jackrabbit, "Sientific name for the Black-Tailed Jackrabbit is Lepus californicus". Black-Tailed Jackrabbit is a Lepus type of rabbit that belongs to the Leporidae family. The Black-Tailed Jackrabbits of Mexico and the western parts of the United States, and they are also recognized as the American desert rabbits. Rabbits are smaller than Hares, and they generally have longer ears and taller hind legs. The jackrabbits name comes from their ears, people would say when they first saw them (jackass rabbits) like a jackass donkey with the long ears. Mark Twain the writer first used this name to fame, when he used it in his book of western adventure, "Roughing It". The name was shortened later to jackrabbit. They live in mixed shrub-grassland lands. The Black-Tailed Jackrabbit are largely found at a height of 3,000 meters above the sea level. The Black-Tailed Jackrabbit variety is the third biggest rabbit of North America, next to the white-tailed jackrabbit and the antelope jackrabbit.

Features of Black-Tailed Jackrabbit

A Black-Tailed Jackrabbit is a small, cute animal that attains a maximum body length of 2 feet (61cm), with a body mass, ranging from 3 pounds to 6 pounds (1.4 to 2.7kg). The female Black-Tailed Jackrabbits are bigger than the males, and there is no other noteworthy difference between the male and female rabbits. If a predator is chasing the jackrabbit it relies on its speed and acute hearing power. Its running speed can be as much as 42 to 46 miles per hour (65 to 73km) and it can leap as high as 19 feet (6 meters) in a single jump.

Similar to other varieties of jackrabbits, the Black-Tailed Jackrabbit has unique elongated ears, and has the long, influential back legs feature of hares. The dorsal fur of the Black-Tailed Jackrabbit is dark beige, peppered with black color, and the undersides and the insides of the legs of the animal are creamy white in color. The ears of the rabbit are black-tipped on the external surface, and the inner side is not pigmented. The ventral face of its tail is grey to white in color, and the black dorsal face of the tail continues up to the backbone for some inches, to structure a small black line.

Usually, the black-tailed jackrabbit is non-migrating or non-hibernating animal during the winter season. Instead, the Black-Tailed Jackrabbits use the same home of 0.4 square miles (1sq km)to 1.2 square miles (3 sq km) throughout the year.

A Black-tailed jackrabbit is a vital prey variety for Raptors and carnivorous animals, such as hawks, eagles, owls, foxes, coyotes, and wild cats. The Black-Tailed Jackrabbits host several parasites, as well as ticks, fleas, mites and lice, and due to this reason, hunters habitually keep away from collecting them.

Usually, the Black-Tailed Jackrabbit does not excavate burrows to live in. Rather, they wish to sleep above the land to be capable of hearing predators that may be close to them.

Diet of Black-Tailed Jackrabbit

Usually, the Black-Tailed Jackrabbit is an herbivorous animal and it feeds on different shrubs, grasses, small trees and vegetation. Generally, their winter diets are shrubs that include the bulk of fall, whereas vegetation and grasses are eaten by these rabbits during early summer and spring, but the plant and pattern varieties differ with the type of weather.

Breeding

The breeding of the Black-Tailed Jackrabbit variety counts on the place. Their breeding usually peaks during the spring season, but may persist throughout the year in warm types of weather. Usually, the gestation period ranges from 30 days to 45 days. Juveniles are born completely furred with the opened eyes, and they are well masked and can move within a few minutes of their birth. A healthy female Black-Tailed Jackrabbit can give birth to three or five litters every year. The weight of the wild babies leveret or bunny can be about (2.8 to 3.5 oz) 80 to 100 gm at birth. Therefore, female Black-Tailed Jackrabbits do not defend or even continue with the juvenile, but during nursing. Usually, the litter size is about four offspring, but it may be as low as two offspring and as high as seven offspring in warm areas.

The average lifespan of the Black-Tailed Jackrabbit ranges from 2 year to 5 years.