A cottontail is a rabbit, not a hare. Cottontails belong to the genus Sylvilagus, which contains about 14 recognized species, all classified as true rabbits within the family Leporidae. Despite sharing a family tree with hares, cottontails differ from them in birth development, body structure, nesting behavior, and survival strategy.
Why Cottontails Are Rabbits, Not Hares
The distinction between rabbits and hares comes down to biology, not appearance. The clearest difference is what happens at birth. Cottontail babies are born hairless, blind, and completely helpless. They rely on their mother for warmth and nursing before they can move on their own. Hares, by contrast, are born fully furred with their eyes open and can run within a few hours of being born.
This difference shapes everything about how each animal lives. Cottontails build sheltered nests for their vulnerable young. The eastern cottontail, the most widespread species, digs a shallow depression about four inches deep and eight inches across, then lines it with soft dead grass and fur plucked from the mother’s chest. A cover of grass and hair hides the nest and insulates the babies. Hares skip all of this. Their young are born above ground and can see and evade predators almost immediately, so there’s no need for a protected nest.
The Jackrabbit Confusion
Part of the reason people wonder about cottontails is the confusing naming of their relatives. Jackrabbits, despite the name, are actually hares. They belong to the genus Lepus, have much longer ears and legs, and give birth to fully developed young. Cottontails are the opposite: shorter ears, shorter legs, and helpless newborns. If you see a small, compact animal with ears in the two- to three-inch range, you’re almost certainly looking at a cottontail rabbit. If the ears are dramatically long and the animal is built for sprinting across open terrain, that’s a hare.
Size, Speed, and Survival
Eastern cottontails, the species most people encounter, weigh between 2 and 3.3 pounds and measure 14 to 19 inches long. Their ears are modest at 2 to 3 inches. Compared to hares, which can weigh over 10 pounds with ears stretching 5 or 6 inches, cottontails are noticeably smaller and more compact.
When threatened, cottontails rely on a burst of speed up to about 30 to 35 miles per hour, combined with a zig-zag running pattern designed to confuse predators. They can’t sustain that pace for long, though, so their primary strategy is hiding rather than outrunning a threat. They’ll duck into dense brush, a burrow, or thick ground cover. Hares take the opposite approach: they depend on sustained high-speed running across open ground, with some species reaching 45 miles per hour or more.
Where Cottontails Live
Cottontail rabbits are found throughout the Americas. The eastern cottontail has the largest range, stretching from extreme southern Canada through most of the eastern United States and south into parts of South America. Other species in the Sylvilagus genus occupy niches from the deserts of the Southwest to tropical forests in Central and South America. Some species, like the marsh rabbit and swamp rabbit, are adapted to wetland habitats.
Regardless of species, cottontails tend to favor areas with dense ground cover where they can hide. Brushy fields, forest edges, overgrown yards, and thickets are prime cottontail territory. You won’t typically find them in wide-open grasslands the way you’d find hares, because their survival depends on having cover nearby.
How Cottontails Reproduce
Cottontails breed prolifically. The gestation period is about 28 days, and females typically produce 2 to 4 litters per year with 3 to 8 babies per litter. That reproductive pace is necessary because cottontails face heavy predation from hawks, owls, foxes, coyotes, snakes, and domestic cats. Most cottontails don’t survive their first year, so high birth rates keep the population stable.
The newborns grow quickly despite their helpless start. Within a couple of days, they develop a full coat of fur and open their eyes. By about three weeks, young cottontails leave the nest and begin foraging on their own. This rapid development cycle, repeated several times each warm season, is a core part of the cottontail’s survival strategy as a species that sits near the bottom of many food chains.