Sylvilagus audubonii
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The desert cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii), also known as Audubon's cottontail, is a New World cottontail rabbit, and a member of the family Leporidae. Unlike the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), they do not form social burrow systems, but compared with some other leporids, they are extremely tolerant of other individuals in their vicinity.
Cottontails give birth to their kits in burrows vacated by other mammals. They sometimes cool off, or take refuge in scratched out shallow created depressions of their own making, using their front paws like a back hoe. They are not usually active in the middle of the day, but can be observed foraging in the early morning, and early evening. Cottontails are rarely found out of their burrows looking for food on windy days, because the wind interferes with their ability to hear approaching predators, their primary defense mechanism.
The lifespan of a cottontail that reaches adulthood averages less than two years, depending on the location. Unfortunately for the cottontail, almost every local carnivore larger or faster than the lagomorph is its predator. Some predators, like snakes for example, are familiar with the area inhabited... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joshua Tree National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Badlands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Saguaro National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Death Valley National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Big Bend National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Channel Islands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Grand Canyon National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 9 | Zion National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mesa | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Phoenix | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Las Vegas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Tijuana | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 7 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Torreón | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 10 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Réserve africaine de Sigean | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 2 | Chapultepec Zoo | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 3 | Reid Park Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Dallas World Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Desert Cottontail sighting in Big Bend National Park on a given day, based on 83 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 7th most-seen of the 21 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and September
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Desert Cottontail in Big Bend National Park on a given day, against under 5% in December, the lowest month. Those are among Big Bend National Park's wettest months, with about 35 mm of rain a month against 10 mm in April.
Between 5 and 8 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Desert Cottontail sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
5th of 9
Of the 9 parks where we can rate Desert Cottontail sightings, Big Bend National Park ranks 5th at about 30%. The best odds are in Joshua Tree National Park (United States, about 50%), Badlands National Park (United States, about 50%) and Saguaro National Park (United States, about 40%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Desert Cottontail is recorded against all the mammals logged in Big Bend National Park (83 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
