The desert cottontail belongs to South Dakota’s dry western quarter. Its 205 records sit almost entirely in Jackson, Pennington, and Custer counties, and Badlands National Park alone holds 113 of them, more than every other named site combined.
Built for arid ground
Compared with the eastern cottontail, this species is paler and longer-eared, suited to open sagebrush, dry washes, and rocky breaks rather than dense brush. It rests in shallow forms by day and readily retreats into burrows dug by other animals, a habit its eastern relative rarely shows. The eroded spires and grass flats of Badlands National Park are classic country, with Wind Cave National Park and the dry southern reaches of Black Hills National Forest adding records to the south.
A summer-weighted year
Desert cottontails stay active all year, but South Dakota’s reports drop to nothing in January and February, when bitter cold keeps rabbits tucked into cover. Counts surge from May into a June peak as the breeding season runs; a female can raise several litters before fall, and by midsummer half-grown young are feeding in the open at dawn and dusk.
Status in South Dakota
NatureServe ranks the desert cottontail S5, Secure, in South Dakota, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
