Of Oregon’s 489 black-tailed jackrabbit records, Harney County alone supplies 156, and most of the rest spread across the sagebrush basins, high desert, and open valleys of the interior. Jackson, Lake, Baker, and Deschutes counties follow, a map of dry country rather than the wet west side.
A hare built for flight
The black-tailed jackrabbit is a hare, not a rabbit, and it does not burrow. It rests by day in a shallow form scratched beneath a shrub, then outruns trouble on hind legs long enough to carry it across open flats at speed. Its oversized ears do double duty, shedding desert heat through a web of blood vessels. Oregon’s records sit exactly where that design works: John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, the Crooked River National Grassland, Summer Lake Wildlife Area, and the open slopes around Steens Mountain Wilderness Area.
A long season of leverets
Breeding runs from late winter through summer in mild country, with several litters a year, and the young are born fully furred with open eyes, ready to move within hours. Oregon’s counts build from March, crest in May and June, and stay strong through July, matching the months when young jackrabbits are out and conspicuous.
Status in Oregon
NatureServe ranks the black-tailed jackrabbit S5, Secure, in Oregon. The species is native to the state, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
