Desert cottontail records draw a red-rock line across southern Utah. Of 961 records, the biggest named cluster sits in Arches National Park, with Canyonlands and Capitol Reef National Parks, Hovenweep, Bears Ears, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, and Zion National Park carrying the same pattern through canyon country, while Grand, Washington, and San Juan counties lead the state.
A rabbit of brushy desert edges
The desert cottontail lives where open feeding ground meets cover, brushy washes, sagebrush flats, and the tangle along canyon rims. It spends the heat of the day in a shaded form or under dense shrubs, emerging at dawn and dusk to graze grasses, cactus pads, and the leaves and bark of desert shrubs, getting much of the water it needs straight from its food. Rocky cover at places like Dinosaur National Monument and Red Cliffs National Monument fits it as well as the sandy benches farther south.
Litters through the growing season
Breeding begins in spring and continues through summer, with females raising several litters in fur-lined nests scraped into the ground. Utah’s reports climb from April to a May-through-July crest, matching the months when young rabbits first appear above ground, and taper gradually into autumn. Cottontails stay active all winter, feeding on bark and twigs when green forage disappears.
Status in Utah
NatureServe ranks the desert cottontail S5, Secure, in Utah, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
