Washington’s 118 black-tailed jackrabbit records trace the state’s shrub-steppe, with Walla Walla, Benton, and Franklin counties in the lower Columbia Basin carrying the largest share. This is the northern edge of the species’ range, which runs south through the deserts of the West into Mexico, and Washington’s jackrabbits live in the open sage and grass country between the Columbia River and the Palouse.
A hare of open ground
Jackrabbits are hares, not rabbits, and they show it. The young are born furred and open-eyed in a shallow form on bare ground rather than in a burrow, and the adults rely on oversized ears for cooling and on sheer speed instead of cover. In Washington that means the wide horizons of Benton and Franklin counties, where a jackrabbit can spot a coyote early and simply outrun it across the sage.
Active in every season
Unlike many Washington mammals, jackrabbits neither hibernate nor den up in cold weather, and records turn up in every month of the year. Counts climb through late winter and crest in March, when the breeding season begins and chases and upright boxing matches between females and suitors make these normally solitary animals suddenly conspicuous.
Status in Washington
NatureServe ranks the black-tailed jackrabbit S2, Imperiled, in Washington, where it reaches the northern edge of its range in shrub-steppe habitat. The species is native to the state, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous.
Full species profile
