Pennsylvania’s eastern cottontail record runs to 8,152 sightings, one of the largest of any mammal in the state. Allegheny, Centre, and Montgomery counties lead the tally, but the rabbit’s real geography is the seam between cover and open ground, and Pennsylvania’s patchwork of farms, suburbs, and young forest supplies that edge almost everywhere.
A specialist in edges
Cottontails do not live in deep forest or open prairie; they live where the two meet. Brushy fencerows, overgrown field corners, briar tangles, and shrubby backyard borders give them hiding cover within a hop of grass and clover. That is the habitat on display in the thickets at Presque Isle State Park, along the field margins of Tyler and Ridley Creek state parks, and in the managed clearings of State Game Land #46. A rabbit flushed from such cover freezes first, then bolts in a zigzag that relies on speed and turns rather than distance.
Breeding through the warm months
Records climb sharply in April and stay high through July, tracking the breeding season. Females raise several litters a year in shallow nests scraped into grass or mulch, and by midsummer half-grown young are feeding in the open at dawn and dusk. Winter brings no hibernation; cottontails shift to bark, twigs, and buds and stay active through the snow.
Status in Pennsylvania
NatureServe ranks the eastern cottontail S5, Secure, in Pennsylvania. It is native to the state, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
