Missouri’s cottontail records rank third overall, concentrated in the state’s remaining tallgrass prairie. Prairie State Park, the largest surviving native prairie in Missouri, and Taberville Prairie Conservation Area both offer the brushy fencerows and grass-shrub edges cottontails favor for escape cover, more than the open grassland itself.
Reports build fast each spring, nearly tripling between March and April, and hold through a May peak before fading by autumn. Cottontails breed repeatedly across the warm months, so more animals moving through cover during the day likely explains part of that jump, alongside easier viewing once roadside vegetation greens up.
All 1,712 records are GBIF entries rather than iNaturalist photos, which points to structured field surveys behind this count more than casual sightings by park visitors.
Full species profile
