The mountain cottontail, also called Nuttall’s cottontail, is Colorado’s rabbit of the high shrublands. Open occurrence databases hold 1,013 records for it in Colorado, spread from the foothills up through sagebrush and montane forest.
A cottontail built for cold and rock
This is the small, short-eared cottontail of the uplands, its ears more compact than those of its lowland cousins, a build that sheds less heat in the cool country it prefers. It keeps to sagebrush, mountain shrub, rocky slopes, and the brushy margins of conifer forest, usually near talus or boulder piles that give it fast escape cover. That preference lifts it well above the plains rabbits, into the foothills and the mid-elevation mountains.
Where it turns up in Colorado
Its records trace that higher, rockier niche. Larimer, Boulder, and Jefferson counties along the Front Range lead, but it shows strongly on the western slope in Montrose and Rio Blanco as well, and through the mountain parks. Rocky Mountain National Park and the rim country around Black Canyon of the Gunnison are dependable places to find one tucked among sage and rock.
A summer peak in the high country
Sightings rise to a sharp midsummer high and taper through the colder months. The mountain cottontail stays active all winter, gnawing twigs, bark, and sage when green forage lies buried, so the seasonal curve follows hikers reaching the high shrublands after snowmelt more than the rabbit’s own rhythm. It rests by day in a form or a rock crevice and feeds in the low light of morning and evening.
Full species profile
