What is the difference between a cottontail and a hare?
What is the difference between a cottontail and a hare?
What is the difference between a cottontail and a hare?
For one, they’re separate species—and hares are bigger, have longer ears, and are less social than bunnies. Hares and rabbits look similar, and some may hop to the conclusion that they’re the same animal.
What is the most obvious difference between rabbits and hares?
In general, rabbits are smaller and have shorter ears than hares. They are born without fur and with closed eyes after a gestation period of 30–31 days. Rabbits prefer to hide, rather than run, from their enemies.
Is a cottontail a rabbit or a hare?
They belong to the same order (Lagomorpha) and family (Leporidae), but they have separate genuses. The 30 or so species of hares fit into just one genus (Lepus), whereas rabbits branch out into 10 genuses, including the North American genus Sylvilagus, more commonly known as cottontails.
How can you tell the difference between a snowshoe hare and a cottontail rabbit?
In general, bunnies are smaller and slower than hares, who have larger ears and feet and stronger hind legs. The white creatures you see skittering around in winter are hares, not wild rabbits.
Do cottontails change color?
Cottontails do not change color, keeping basically a brown pelt year round. They start breeding in late winter or early spring and have two or three litters of young, each litter having three or four leverets (baby bunnies).
Can rabbits and hares crossbreed?
That means that our domesticated rabbits, if released into the wild, cannot cross breed with wild rabbits or hares, because they are different species and genera, so there is no possibility of mating. They thus cannot disrupt the local ecosystem.
What looks like a rabbit but isn t?
Viscachas or vizcachas (UK: /vɪˈskætʃəz/, US: /vɪˈskɑːtʃəz/) are rodents of two genera (Lagidium and Lagostomus) in the family Chinchillidae. They are native to South America and look similar—but are not closely related—to rabbits due to convergent evolution.
How can you tell the difference between a cottontail and a jackrabbit?
Jackrabbits aren’t really rabbits, and cottontails don’t have tails of cotton. The former is a hare; the latter’s tail is a white ball of fur. Though different, they both live in nests above ground.
How closely related are rabbits and hares?
Rabbits and hares are members of the same mammal family: Leporidae. They’re closely related to rodents but are distinctive in their features. With twitching noses, lanky hind legs and long ears, rabbits and hares may appear very similar, but there are some big differences between the two.
How are rabbits and hares similar?
Both breed prolifically, bearing four to eight litters each year. Although hunters value them as game for food and fur, they are also pests to farmers and gardeners because they can destroy crops and trees. Hares and rabbits differ in both physical features and lifestyle.