Cottontails face numerous natural enemies, including coyotes, fox, hawks, owls and snakes. Almost half of their newborns die before six weeks of age, succumbing to cold weather, flooding, lawn mowers and predation by cats, snakes, crows, magpies and weasels. Of course, many cottontails are also killed by human hunters and motorists.
To balance these threats and insure their survival, cottontails are very fertile and produce multiple litters through the course of a year. In Missouri, these common rabbits breed from mid February to early September with many females giving birth to seven or eight litters. Their gestation period is 4 weeks and litters average 4 to 6 bunnies; spring litters tend to be the largest. Some females born in the spring will give birth to their own offspring by late summer.
This survival strategy is also common among small prey animals such as mice, voles and lemmings. When conditions are favorable, such fertility may lead to population explosions and the potential for significant crop loss. It is then that we most appreciate nature's predators.
