Mountain cottontail records spread across northern Utah’s higher, rockier ground, from the sagebrush slopes of Antelope Island State Park through the Wasatch canyons of Uinta and Wasatch National Forests to the rim country of Bryce Canyon National Park and the juniper benches of Dinosaur National Monument. Salt Lake, Davis, and Utah counties lead the 823-record total.
A cottontail that uses burrows
Among cottontails, this is the one most willing to go underground. Mountain cottontails shelter in rock crevices, under talus, and in burrows dug by other animals, a habit that fits the rocky, shrub-steppe country they favor over open desert floor. Sagebrush and mountain shrubs provide both food and cover, and the species ranges higher than its desert cousin, turning up from valley foothills to the subalpine edges around Lone Peak Wilderness.
A long breeding season on the slopes
Like other cottontails, mountain cottontails raise several litters between spring and midsummer, each in a shallow, fur-lined nest tucked under brush. Utah’s reports rise through April and run strongest from May into July, when half-grown young are out on their own, then settle gradually into autumn. The rabbits stay active through the high-country winter, browsing sagebrush and bark above the snow.
Status in Utah
NatureServe ranks the mountain 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
