What Does a Rabbit Look Like?
The eastern cottontail is the most common rabbit species in Wisconsin. It has a speckled brown-gray coat with reddish-brown fur around its neck and feet and white fur on its underside. Cottontails have long ears, large hind feet, and short, fluffy whitetails that resemble cotton balls. The eastern cottontail rabbit is about one foot long and weighs one to six pounds.
What are the Signs of a Rabbit in Your Yard?
Cottontail rabbits thrive in highly vegetated or agricultural areas with plenty of grass and plants for grazing and protection. They find shelter in brush piles, wood piles, shrubs, and tall grass. If there are suitable openings and space, rabbits will burrow under porches, decks, and sheds. A single rabbit will spend its entire life within the same 10 acres of land, rarely venturing beyond unless the availability of food and cover is compromised.
Professional Rabbit Removal in Milwaukee, WI
Advanced Wildlife and Pest Control provides rabbit removal and exclusion services in Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin. Our certified wildlife specialists safely and efficiently trap, remove, and exclude nuisance rabbits from your property.
We will perform a thorough home inspection to identify signs of rabbit activity, such as droppings, tracks, holes, and vegetation damage. Rabbit trapping is the most effective and humane way to remove a rabbit.
Rabbit Damage & Diseases
Rabbits are voracious eaters who munch all day long on flowers, vegetables, herbs, and grasses. If left unchecked, these furry nibblers can cause extensive damage to gardens, flower beds, landscaping, and crop fields. Wild rabbits may carry tularemia, also known as “rabbit fever,” a bacterial disease that can be transferred to humans through tick or flea bites.
Rabbit Prevention
The most effective way to prevent rabbits is to create exclusions and habitat modifications around your home. Our heavy-duty wire mesh fencing can help keep rabbits out from underneath decks, porches, and sheds. The fencing is buried 12 to 18 inches deep and out to prevent rabbits from burrowing underneath. Fencing in gardens, orchards, and flowerbeds will also help avert rabbits’ feeding habits.
- Remove brush piles, weed patches, stone piles, and other debris.
- Clean up fallen fruit and vegetation from your property.
- Put up a barrier around your flowers and garden to keep them out.
- Block access underneath decks, porches, and sheds with our heavy-duty wire mesh fencing.
Rabbit FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
What do rabbits eat?
Rabbits are herbivores and eat many kinds of plants, including grasses, clovers, alfalfa, and dandelions. They will also eat garden plants such as lettuce, peas, asparagus, cabbage, tomatoes, beets, beans, and more. In the winter, rabbits eat woody parts of plants like twigs and bark.
Where do rabbits live?
Eastern cottontail rabbits are found throughout Wisconsin, especially in grasslands, meadows, farmlands, and wooded areas. Rabbit burrows are often found near tree stumps or in tall, thick grasses.
When do rabbits have babies?
The eastern cottontail rabbit is polygamous and will mate with several rabbits. They mate from February through September. The gestation period is only 28 to 30 days, with four to six young born per litter. Cottontails often have three to four litters per year. Baby rabbits are born blind and hairless. They are weaned after about three weeks and leave the nest after about seven weeks. Eastern cottontails can mate when they are three months old.
How long do rabbits live?
The average lifespan of an eastern cottontail rabbit in the wild is one year. Coyotes, bobcats, foxes, hawks, snakes, and owls prey upon wild rabbits.
What does rabbit poop look like?
Rabbit droppings are small, dark, spherical, and less than 1/2 inch in diameter. Cottontails are coprophagous, meaning that they eat their own droppings.
What do rabbit tracks look like?
Rabbit footprints are oval in shape, with five toes on the front feet and four toes on the hind feet. The prints of their hind feet are about double the length of the prints of the front feet. When rabbits hop, the prints of the hind feet are side by side in front of the prints from the front feet.
Illustration by Jenavieve Mueller