Cisco’s Sonar

By Bryce Nielson

Lagomorphs

You have seen them.  Sitting quietly under the sage brush or smashed on the highway.  You may remember seeing a lot of them, but I would bet you haven’t seen many in the past year.  I am talking, of course, about wild rabbits of the Order Lagomorpha.  There are four species in the Bear Lake Valley, the whitetail hare, snowshoe hare, cottontail, and pygmy cottontail.  It was always interesting to me why the black-tailed jack rabbit never moved from Cache Valley side to Bear Lake, but I have never seen one over here.

Most people take these animals for granted, but I have studied and observed them for years as I traveled countless miles around Bear Lake.  I could talk all about the rabbits themselves, but I am concerned about where they have gone.  I have always heard that they go through a 7 to 10 year cycle.  Whenever we didn’t see many, we just assumed they were at a low point in their cycle.  After doing some research, that apparently isn’t the case anymore.  Populations in the Columbia Basin have crashed and have not returned after 15 years.  Recently, they appear to be gone from Yellowstone Park.  Their status is changing from “no concern” to “species of concern” in some areas.

There are some theories about their population decline. Whitetail jack rabbits and cottontails inhabit the shrub-steppe sagebrush landscape.  Habitat loss is the first reason speculated.  Land practices like chaining, spraying sagebrush with herbicides or development are the primary factors.  Large scale wildfires that burn the sage and replace it with cheatgrass are also significant factors in habitat loss.  Predation by raptors, coyotes, etc. are also blamed for the decline in populations.  Personally, I don’t think predators are a major factor and I see more future declines in eagle, hawk and predator populations with nothing to eat.  Disease is of concern, but rarely documented in population shifts.

I just want to see rabbits again.  I loved watching my dog trying to catch big, old, white tailed jack and never coming close.  I still look for a cottontail perfectly still under a bush or the lonesome tracks of a snowshoe on the fresh snow.   Not much anyone can do but hope the weather restores their habitat in the years to come with plentiful moisture and no fires.