Oregon’s white-tailed jackrabbit records come from the state’s high desert, in the sagebrush steppe and rimrock country around Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and the wider Great Basin country east of the Cascades. That’s the open, low-cover ground this hare depends on everywhere in its range, since it survives on speed across flat terrain instead of hiding in brush.
This is the biggest jackrabbit in North America, with ears longer than a black-tailed jackrabbit’s and, where snow lasts through winter, a coat that molts to nearly pure white by early season. It can outrun coyotes and hawks at speeds near 35 miles an hour, and its oversized ears double as a way to shed heat on hot desert days. NatureServe ranks it S2, imperiled, in Oregon, matching how sparse its Oregon presence is next to its real stronghold across Colorado, Wyoming, and the Dakotas.
With only a handful of confirmed Oregon sightings, mostly in spring and late fall, there isn’t enough data to describe a reliable season here. The state also sits at the edge of a range that has been pulling back for decades as farming and grazing reshape open ground and the smaller black-tailed jackrabbit spreads north.
Full species profile
