Sylvilagus audubonii
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Desert Cottontail sighting in Denver on a given day, based on 137 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 10th most-seen of the 19 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July to September
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Desert Cottontail in Denver on a given day, against about 10% in October to June, the lowest months.
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.
8th of 10
Of the 10 cities where we can rate Desert Cottontail sightings, Denver ranks 8th at about 10%. The best odds are in Mesa (United States, about 60%), Phoenix (United States, about 40%) and Las Vegas (United States, about 40%).
Same genus: Sylvilagus
The closest relatives of the Desert Cottontail that you can see in Denver (genus Sylvilagus, Cottontail Rabbits) are Mountain Cottontail (about 10%) and Eastern Cottontail (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Desert Cottontail is recorded against all the mammals logged in Denver (137 verified sightings), 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.
