Animals: Cottontails

Cottontails

Motorists kill one rabbit for every mile of U. S. roadway in a year. The State Fish & Game Commission of New Jersey last fortnight announced that it had ordered 20,000 Western cottontails to replace unfortunate Eastern cottontails run over by automobiles. The Westerners will be delivered next spring.

Rabbits are found in great numbers along highways, chiefly at night. Some game commissioners think they come out of the chilly woods to lie in the warm roadside sand. Others have suggested that they find food thrown out by motorists. Best explanation may be that they, like many other animals, are attracted by the lights of passing cars. The glare blinds them. They either race in front of the automobile or squat down in the highway. Although New York’s wild rabbit death rate is as high as New Jersey’s, New York plans this year to stock only with snow-shoe rabbits, which go to the mountain districts.

Cottontails raise at least two litters per season with an average of eight to a litter. New Jersey’s new Westerners, but for automobiles and other foes, would number around 180,000 by the end of a year.