Wyoming’s mountain cottontail keeps to the brushy, rocky middle ground between the open plains and the deep forest. The 261 records spread broadly across the state, Albany and Park counties leading, with Yellowstone National Park holding 41 and scattered sightings reaching from Natrona County’s basin country to the prairie edge at Devils Tower National Monument.
A rabbit of the brush
This species favors slopes and benches where sagebrush, juniper, and rock piles give it somewhere to duck, and it climbs better than most cottontails, sometimes taking refuge in low branches. Like its desert cousin it does not dig, resting in a form under cover and feeding on grasses in summer, bark and twigs through winter.
Breeding through the warm months
The record builds from a quiet April to a midsummer crest, consistent with a breeding season that can produce several litters between spring and fall. When pressed, a mountain cottontail’s first defense is to freeze against the brush, so even an occupied hillside can look empty until something moves.
Status in Wyoming
NatureServe ranks the mountain cottontail S5, Secure, in Wyoming, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
