Of Idaho’s 179 black-tailed jackrabbit records, nearly all sit on the Snake River Plain and its desert margins, with Owyhee and Minidoka counties leading the list. This is a hare of open, arid ground, and the map reflects that.
Ears, legs, and open country
The jackrabbit’s oversized ears shed desert heat while doubling as long-range warning, and its hind legs can carry it at speeds approaching 40 miles an hour in bounding flight from coyotes. It needs room to run, which is why Idaho’s records hug the sagebrush steppe and the lava country around Craters of the Moon National Monument rather than the forested mountains.
No white coat, no winter retreat
Unlike the snowshoe hare, the black-tailed jackrabbit keeps much the same pale coat all year and stays active through Idaho winters. Reports jump sharply in June, when leverets born in spring are out and moving and adults are busy with further litters, part of a breeding season that can stretch across most of the warm months.
Status in Idaho
NatureServe ranks the black-tailed jackrabbit S4, Apparently Secure, in Idaho, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
