Module 1 of 8 Foundations
Cottontails: ID & Biology
Identify the eastern cottontail and distinguish it from SC's other wild rabbits, and understand the breeding, lifespan, and behavior that drive how and when you hunt it.
Lessons
6 lessons in this module · 35 across the path
- Why Rabbits Are the Best First Quarry Makes the case for the cottontail as the Piedmont beginner's ideal small game — abundant upstate, license-only, low gear bar, fast feedback — and frames what this track will build.
- Knowing a Cottontail On Sight Covers the eastern cottontail's diagnostic field marks: the white cotton-ball tail, rusty nape, grizzled brown coat, and frequent white forehead blaze.
- Cottontail vs. Swamp & Marsh Rabbit Separates the cottontail from the larger swamp rabbit (which reaches the western Piedmont) and the coastal marsh rabbit by tail color, size, eye-ring, and habitat so you know what you're really looking at.
- Where Cottontails Live in the Piedmont Maps cottontail abundance across the SC Piedmont and explains why upstate brushy old-field country holds more rabbits than the coastal plain.
- Prolific & Short-Lived: The Numbers That Matter Explains the cottontail's multiple-litter breeding, ~5-8 acre home range, and ~80% annual turnover, and why that high reproductive rate shapes a generous, sustainable season.
- How a Cottontail Spends Its Day Covers crepuscular activity, feeding and loafing patterns, and the sit-tight-then-flush instinct that makes a rabbit hold until you nearly step on it.