WHITE-TAILED JACKRABBIT Lepus townsendii Family Leporidae - Hares and Rabbits Order Lagomorpha - Hares Risk Status Official status The White-tailed Jackrabbit is probably extirpated in British Columbia and is therefore on the Provincial Red List ( CDC = G5 S1). COSEWIC has not examined this species. Risk Status Distinguishing Features Distribution Habitat Why is it endangered? Biology Sources for more information Museum Specimens Image Credits: Top sketch by Michael Hames for the Royal British Columbia Museum. Bottom sketch in The Mammals of British Columbia, Cowan and Guiguet, 1978. Historical facts The last record in British Columbia was in 1980. Before extirpation, this race was restricted in Canada to the southern Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys of British Columbia ( Osoyoos to White Lake, Oliver, Chopaka north to Keremeos in Similkameen and Okanagan Falls). Distinguishing features The White-tailed Jackrabbit, Prairie Hare or White Jack as it is commonly referred to, is a large hare with pale grayish brown dorsum; white under parts and a white tail or at most with a thin brownish to grayish black mid-dorsal stripe. The ears are dark grizzled-grey in front with white outer rims, greyish white behind, and prominent black tips. The throat is greyish; otherwise the feet are white. The pelage is rather thin and coarse. The underfur is pale grey; the long guard hairs have dark grey intermediate bands and long buffy tips. Their coat is greyish-white in the winter except for blackish ears. When the long guard hairs are parted, however, the buffy-grey underfur shows through. There are two annual moults: October to November, and April to May. After the snow has melted in late spring, white hares are occasionally seen squatting in bare, brown, ploughed fields. They have long, antenna-like ears, long legs, and large body size in comparison to the snowshoe hare. It is relatively slim hare with very slender legs and a relatively long white tail. Its average weight is about 3 kilograms, but it may weigh up to 6 kilograms. In British Columbia, the White-tailed Jackrabbit mean measurements are: 564 mm total length; 150 mm hindfoot length; and 120 mm ear length. Distribution British Columbia In Canada, the subspecies, Lepus townsendii townsendii was found only in the southern Okanagan Valley from Osoyoos Lake to Summerland in British Columbia below an elevation of 600 m. Where it is at the northern periphery of its range in the United States, it may be extirpated and is probably extinct in British Columbia. North America This subspecies is found from California, Nevada and north to British Columbia. The second subspecies, Lepus townsendii campanius, occurs in the prairie portions of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and the American Great Plains. This other subspecies of White-tailed Jackrabbit is found in the western United States as far south as northern New Mexico and central California. Numbers have declined in Washington State in recent years, especially in the northern part of the state. It ranges from the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains, the northern and central Great Plains, eastern slopes of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains. Habitat The White-tailed Jackrabbit uses different habitat types seasonally. In eastern Washington, they shift from arid, hilly bunchgrass in summer to lower sagebrush valleys in winter. These hares also frequent pastures and cultivated grainfields, bordered by willow thickets and wild rose tangles, as well as the native short-grass sagebrush plains. Sagebrush habitats and agricultural areas from valley bottoms to 600 m are the preferred habitat. They seldom penetrate wooded areas to any extent, except when seeking shelter from winter blizzards. The Jackrabbits will burrow in snowbanks or crouch in shallow depressions in the winter, with only their backs, flattened ears, and eyes showing above the snow surface. In the summer, they build forms or shallow depressions at the base of bushes, rocks, or other shelter to be used during the day and as nests. They may seek shelter in badger burrows as well. Why is it endangered? Probably disappeared in British Columbia as a result of over-hunting, habitat loss and habitat fragmentation. The White-tailed Jackrabbit used to be locally abundant, but numbers were reduced because of cultivation and extirmination by farmers who viewed them as pests and sources of fur. One reason that they are limited by any development of their habitat is that they require a large home range, estimated to be as large as 89.4 hectares in Colorado. Consequently, their numbers have dropped due to the reduction of available habitat. Since they can cause agricultural damage, the White-tailed Jackrabbit is not considered adaptable to human disturbance. Grazing of rangelands by cattle may result in Jackrabbits no longer using the area since there is about a 50% overlap between the diets of cattle and jackrabbits. Being inefficient foragers, they are unable to tolerate reduced food abundance or changes in plant species cause by overgrazing. Severe winter conditions increase mortality and may reduce reproduction the following spring as well as cause the Jackrabbits to be more susceptible to predators if the snow cover is scarce. Wet weather also increases juvenile mortality. As well as contending with a number of large predators, the White-tailed Jackrabbit populations are controlled by diseases and parasites of several kinds, including tularaemia, Colorado tick fever, equine encephalitis and fever caused by heavy infestations of botfly larvae. Occasionally, they are hunted by humans for sport and meat (outside of British Columbia). Biology Breeding The extremely low number of reported sightings of adults in the Okanagan region and the fact that there have been no recorded sightings of juveniles in the last 10 years, suggests that they are extirpated. The breeding season begins in late February. It is expected that the young are born in June and early July with an average litter size of 4 (3-6). The jackrabbits exhibit breeding synchrony and have a post partum estrus that allows conception right after parturition. Females probably only bear one litter per year. In southern populations, females may have 3-4 litters per year. New-born jackrabbits are remarkably precocious, even being able to run. They are born with fur and open eyes and weighing about 100 g, and are concealed in an abandoned burrow, cavity, or shallow "form." They are nursed by their mothers (which possess eight mammae) until they are about a quarter grown, at the age of five to six weeks, about the end of July. In three to four months they reach adult weight. Behaviour The White-tailed Jackrabbit are generally nocturnal and are most active at dusk, early in the morning, and on moonlit nights. It is most frequently observed crossing the road in the beam of car headlights, its eyes glowing fiery-red. They are active throughout the year as are all lagomorphs. The day is spent under a bush or shrub or simply hidden in tall grass and they are seldom seen unless "jumped" from their form. The Jackrabbit usually lies low in its form, ears pressed back over its back and eyelids half-closed over its strange yellow irises. It usually does not flush until the intruder is about to step on it; then it springs into the air. Speed, up to 40 miles per hour in bursts, rather than concealment is principally relied upon to escape predators. After short bursts of supreme effort, the hare settles down into a series of low gliding leaps, which may cover from four to seventeen feet of ground. The Jackrabbit is also a strong swimmer and may plunge into a river when pursued and swim buoyantly with much splashing to the other side. Jackrabbits are generally silent except for their shrill screams when wounded. A captured jackrabbit is not completely helpless and may inflict deep scratches with its long hind claws. This species seems to be one of the least sociable of the group. The hares are generally solitary, but small groups of three or four may occasionally be observed in the mating season. Diurnal aggregations of 50-100 individuals have been observed in Saskatchewan. Diet or Growing requirements The Jackrabbits are herbivorous and travel and forage along well-worn trails; obtaining water from their food. Their summer diet consists of a variety of green vegetation including clover, cultivated grains, alfalfa, and other crops, native grasses and some forbs. While, in the winter, their usual winter food consists of dried grasses, roots, buds, twigs and bark of berry and fruit trees. Reingestion of soft fecal pellets (coprophagy) occurs in hares, as it does in rabbits. They are also partial to lettuce and cabbage and may eat agricultural crops or damage orchards in drought or in winter. They are also fond of haystacks and may gather there is small groups to shelter and eat stored hay. The jackrabbits also require salts and minerals obtained from mineral soils. Predators Jackrabbits serve as prey for a number of the prairie predators including coyotes, wolves, and foxes. In the more southern mountainous areas of their range, bobcats and eagles are their predators. On the Canadian prairies they are hunted by day by the larger hawks and by night by the large owls. However, their great speed and their protective colouration as they crouch in their forms are great aids to their survival. They have been known to dodge under barbed-wire fences to escape the swoop of a hawk. Sources of more information Related On-line Sites to Visit Publications The Mammals of BC , Nagorsen, 1990 Our Living Legacy, 1993, RBCM The SOCAP Workshop Summary, The Nature Trust, 1989. Habitat Conservation Fund, August 1992. Jones, J.K. and E.C. Birney. 1988. Handbook of Mammals of the North-Central States. University of Minnesota Press. Living Landscape Directory of Researchers and their projects Museum Specimens this section sponsored by: Industry Canada

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