Settlers brought the eastern cottontail to New England before 1900, and it now competes with the native New England cottontail for the same places to live, and as of November 2026, the native New England cottontail's numbers have been steadily declining because it competes with the eastern cottontail, which uses many of the same resources and habitats. An eastern cottontail weighs about two to three pounds, and in the daytime, cottontails hide in thick bushes, and they are most active at dawn and dusk. A cottontail mother scrapes a shallow dip in the ground for her nest instead of digging a burrow, and most wild eastern cottontails live only two or three years.
Some wild rabbits live in underground homes called warrens, where rabbits live in groups. A typical group has six to ten adults, and a big warren can hold up to 30 rabbits. A big warren can spread across two acres or more. The pygmy rabbit is the smallest rabbit in North America, and it digs its own burrow. A pregnant pygmy rabbit digs a secret, shallow nursery burrow. After nursing, she fills the entrance with loose soil to hide it. As of November 2026, in Washington State's Columbia Basin, the remaining pygmy rabbit population is endangered. Its shrub-steppe home has been broken up, and wildfires have increased.
A baby rabbit is called a kit. Baby cottontails are born with no fur, and they cannot see, and they open their eyes when they are about a week old. A mother rabbit stays away from her nest most of the day and visits only briefly to feed her babies. Young cottontails leave the nest when they are two to three weeks old, and they are on their own when they are about a month old. An eastern cottontail mother usually has two to four litters a year. A young wild cottontail about the size of a softball, with its eyes open and its ears held upright, can take care of itself and should be left alone.
A rabbit's ears show how it feels: ears close together, upright and pointing outward mean a relaxed rabbit, but ears flat against the back mean a worried one. A rabbit can move each of its big ears on its own to find where a sound is coming from. Its eyes sit high on the sides of its head, so it can spot danger from almost any direction, and it has a blind spot under its chin and in front of its nose. A rabbit may thump its back feet on the ground to warn of danger. A cottontail that senses danger may freeze in place or dash away.
Rabbits are lagomorphs, not rodents, and a rabbit has two pairs of upper front teeth, a big pair with a small peg tooth behind each, while a rodent has only one pair. A rabbit's front teeth grow about 2 to 3 millimeters every week, which is why a pet rabbit needs hay: chewing it grinds the teeth down side to side. Rabbits eat only plants. A rabbit has a very large cecum, a pouch in its gut where plant food ferments. Rabbits pass a special soft dropping called a cecotrope, and they eat it to get extra nutrients. Rabbits also eat some of their own soft droppings to get more food value from plants.
A hutch alone is not enough for a pet rabbit. It needs room to move, play, exercise and hide, at least 3 by 2 by 1 meters, about 10 by 6.5 by 3 feet. Pet rabbits eat mostly hay, and they should eat only a few pellets, and pet rabbits need other rabbits for company, and two pet rabbits should meet slowly, on neutral ground. They need toys they can chew and dig in. A pet rabbit loose in a room must be kept safe from chewing electrical cords. A rabbit has a fragile backbone, so it must be held gently and kept from struggling, and never picked up by its ears. A pet rabbit can live for 8 to 12 years, and it needs a lot of time and care.
Words to know
- habitats: natural homes
- endangered: close to vanishing
- cecum: gut pouch
- lagomorphs: rabbits and hares
