Few California mammals are recorded as widely as the black-tailed jackrabbit. Its 11,956 records reach 55 counties, from the Bay Area grasslands of Santa Clara County through Mariposa and the Sierra foothills to San Bernardino, Riverside, and San Diego in the desert south.
A hare built for open country
The black-tailed jackrabbit is a true hare, not a burrowing rabbit. It rests by day in a shallow form scratched out beneath a shrub, trusts its camouflage until the last moment, and explodes into a run that can top 40 miles per hour when flushed. Ears nearly as long as its head double as radiators, shedding heat on still desert afternoons. Everything about the animal suits the open, dry ground where California’s records cluster: Joshua Tree National Park with 403, Mojave National Preserve with 156, and grassland parks such as Annadel and Sugarloaf Ridge in the Coast Ranges.
Spring growth, spring sightings
Counts build from March through May, the year’s clear peak, then taper through the hottest months to a low in late fall and early winter. Jackrabbits breed through the mild part of the year, raising leverets born furred, open-eyed, and ready to move, and fresh spring growth feeds the grazing they do in the open at dawn and dusk. The Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area’s records sit on exactly that kind of ground, flat valley grassland where a running jackrabbit is hard to miss.
Status in California
NatureServe has not assigned a California rank (SNR), but the species is G5, secure, rangewide. The black-tailed jackrabbit is native to the state, is not listed as nonindigenous by USGS NAS, and carries no state-level conservation listing.
Full species profile
