Alabama’s swamp rabbit record, 141 occurrences, leans hard toward the state’s wet lowlands. Baldwin and Mobile counties lead, and Meaher State Park alone holds more records than any other named place, with the neighboring 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center adding more along the same delta country.
The rabbit that swims
The swamp rabbit is the largest of the cottontails, and it is welded to water. It lives in bottomland hardwoods, canebrakes, sloughs, and marshy forest edges, feeding on grasses, sedges, and soft browse, and it does not hesitate at a channel: pressed by danger, a swamp rabbit takes to the water and swims strongly, something its upland cousin the eastern cottontail rarely does. Tuskegee National Forest’s bottomlands, Gulf State Park’s wet margins, and the Barbour Wildlife Management Area all hold that kind of ground.
No quiet season in the bottoms
Counts run through the entire year, with modest rises in February, March, and May and no true winter gap. The rabbit stays resident in its wet cover in every season, feeding and resting within a small home ground, and its habit of sitting motionless in cane and briars keeps it hidden even where it is common.
Status in Alabama
NatureServe ranks the swamp rabbit S5, Secure, in Alabama, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
