The swamp rabbit is the South’s big wetland rabbit, and Arkansas’s 51 records trace its range from Washington and Pulaski counties to the White River country near Stone County, with named sites at Petit Jean State Park and the Pine Tree Wildlife Demonstration Area. It is the largest cottontail in North America, heavier and darker than the familiar eastern cottontail, with shorter ears and a taste for wet ground.
A rabbit that swims
Where other rabbits flee upland, the swamp rabbit heads for water. It lives in bottomland hardwood forest, canebrakes, and brushy floodplains, feeding on sedges, canes, and aquatic plants, and it swims strongly and willingly, often escaping dogs by taking to a slough. Swamp rabbits rest on logs and stumps above the flood line and leave their round droppings on top of them, a classic bit of sign along Arkansas’s lowland streams and the forested bottoms of the Delta.
Winter is when it shows
The rabbit is active all year, but the Arkansas record leans toward the cold months, with January and December the strongest. Leafless bottomland woods make a dark, heavy rabbit easier to spot, and winter floodplain sign stands out.
Status in Arkansas
NatureServe ranks the swamp rabbit S4, Apparently Secure, in Arkansas, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
