eastern cottontail

Eastern cottontail is the smallest of Minnesota’s Leporidae, weighing 2 to 4 pounds at maturity.

Mearns’s eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) is rusty-brown in color.

Nebraska cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus similis) is gray.

Total length: 16″ to 19″

Tail: 1¼″ to 2½″

Snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), found in northern Minnesota, is slightly larger than the eastern cottontail. It is uniformly dark brown in the summer and turns white in the winter.

White-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) is much larger, weighing 5¾ to 9½ pounds at maturity. It turns white in the winter.

Eastern cottontail is found in a wider variety of habitats than any other cottontail species. Any habitat that includes well-distributed, dense shrubs for escape cover interspersed with open, grassy areas is ideal for this species. These include farmlands, old fields, pastures, hedgerows, orchards, brushy clearings, open woods, wooded thickets, edges of woodlands, and suburban areas with adequate cover.

3 to 5 years

In the spring, summer, and fall, the eastern cottontail feeds on a wide variety of plant matter, including grasses (about half of it’s diet), clover, wild strawberry, cultivated and wild flowers, and many types of cultivated crops.

During the winter months they feed on twigs, bark and buds of oak, dogwood, sumac, maple and birch. They may girdle fruit trees and ornamental shrubs.

Sources

7, 24, 29, 30, 83.

Biodiversity occurrence data published by: Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas (accessed through the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas Portal, bellatlas.umn.edu, 8/11/2025).

Mearns’s eastern cottontail (S. f. mearnsi) is found throughout the state except for the northeast corner and the western portion of the northwestern counties.

Nebraska cottontail (S. f. similis) range extends into Minnesota only in the western portion of the northwestern counties.

Common

Some major global databases (GBIF, ITIS, Catalogue of Life, and Discover Life) currently list Sylvilagus floridanus without recognized subspecies, while others (Mammal Species of the World and iNaturalist) retain the traditional set of many subspecies. The move toward subspecies-free treatments in the former group is not the result of a formal abolition in the scientific literature, but rather reflects a preference for simplified “species-only” listings unless subspecies are strongly supported by modern genetic data.

Recent studies indicate that most eastern and midwestern U.S. populations are too intermixed—largely due to extensive translocations in the 19th and 20th centuries—to support clear subspecific boundaries. In contrast, some peripheral or isolated populations, especially in Mexico, Central America, and certain islands, have been elevated to full species in some treatments.

For consistency with widely used field guides and citizen-science platforms, MinnesotaSeasons.com follows the subspecies list recognized by iNaturalist.

Mearns’s eastern cottontail

Mearns’s eastern cottontail

Mearns’s eastern cottontail with cottontail rabbit papilloma virus (CRPV)

Sylvilagus floridanus (Eastern Cottontail)
Allen Chartier

Eastern Cottontail
Dan Dzurisin

Eastern Cottontail Rabbit
Gerald (Wayne) Prout

Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Leporidae: Sylvilagus floridanus)
Carl Barrentine

Lane Keller
7/27/2025

Location: Itasca State Park

Near the Jacob V. Brower Visitor Center.

Location: Newburg Township, Fillmore County, MN

Our land is located in Newburg Township, Fillmore County, MN We have trail cameras on our wildlife feeders and I have noticed in all the images of rabbits they have quite small ears, some even smaller than the raccoons that visit the feeder. Yet the photos on your site and elsewhere show rabbits with longer ears. Is this a regional variation or are ours not Eastern cottontail?

Only three rabbit species occur in Minnesota. Snowshoe rabbit is a northern species and does not occur in the southern third of the state. White-tailed jackrabbit has even larger ears with a black tip. The rabbit in this photo, if it is not domestic, is an eastern cottontail.

When a rabbit alerts to a sound, it will "prick up its ears". This may account for the difference in apparent size of rabbit ears in photos on this site and elsewhere.

Location: Episcopal Homes of MN at University W. & Fairview

I live at Episcopal Homes of MN at University W. & Fairview.  We have some resident wild rabbits which I think are Eastern Cottontail.  In the warmer months I often see them eating the clover and grass on the lawns by our buildings at dusk. 

I see them only on the inside of the connected complex of buildings – not on the lawns on the street sides of our buildings.  Nor do I see them in the small city park next to Episcopal Homes.  All this makes me think they are confined or trapped by our continuous buildings.   The only real exit is on to University.

My question is:  How do they survive in the winter?  I see them out occasionally at dusk in the snow or where the snow is pushed aside or bare spots under shrubs & trees, but even that doesn’t seen like enough to sustain them through the winter.  I found a dead bunny last spring next to our building by some shrubs. 

Is there any thing I can do to support their life?  Food?  Plants? Hay?  Shelter?  etc.  Things to avoid?  I have read quit a bit on line, but my questions are not answered.  Some parts of your website I could not open.

Three eastern cottontails live in or near my yard. They have a tough time finding enough food in the winter. I buy Purina Rabbit Chow from Fluegel's in Rosemount. Pet food stores should carry it also. If you want to feed your rabbits, you might put a half cup of it some place where

1. they can find it;
2. it will not be disturbed or covered with snow; and
3. it is easy for you to get at every day.

For me, that place is by a basement exit under an outdoor, second floor deck. I make three small piles, well-spaced, a third cup each, so the three rabbits can all eat at the same time without fighting over the food.

Location: Maplewood Heights Park

Wayne Rasmussen
7/23/2006

Location: Pipestone National Monument

Note the gray fur color. This is a Nebraska cottontail (S. f. similis).

Location: Pennington Co.