Swamp Rabbit

Physical Description
The swamp rabbit is the largest member of its genus: the cottontail family. It is a dark brownish gray color peppered with black on the back and sides with a grayish-white belly. The rabbit’s neck is a brownish rust color and its ears are small and rounded with a black spot between. An adult swamp rabbit is 18 to 22 inches in length.

Average Weight Range
This rabbit is big, weighing 3.5 to 6.5 pounds.

Reproduction
The swamp rabbit normally produces two litters a year averaging three to four young. The gestation period averages 38 days and young are born into a nest constructed in a small depression and lined with grasses, leaves, and fur. Young leave the nest around 14 days of age.

Food
A swamp rabbit eats all types of green vegetation including emergent aquatic plant grasses, sedges, tree seedlings, leaves, cane and agricultural field crops.

Range
Found anywhere from eastern Texas to southern Kansas to southern Indiana down through the Mississippi Delta to the extreme western part of South Carolina and in Georgia in the Piedmont region and coastal plains, this rabbit’s range is large.

Habitat
The swamp rabbit uses forested wetlands throughout its range, preferring floodplains, swamps, river bottoms, lake borders, cane thickets, riparian areas, and other lowland areas near water. The animal never strays too far from the edge of the water.

Common Hunting Methods
The same methods used in hunting other cottontail rabbits are generally applied to the hunting of the swamp rabbit. Slowly walking appropriate habitat to flush the rabbit and the use of a dog to move the rabbit to a specific area are the most common methods.

Hunting Challenges/Values
The swamp rabbit offers several challenges to the sportsmen. Their habitat is normally difficult to move through, the rabbit is a swift runner and moves in a zigzag fashion, it is a good swimmer, and the rabbit hides in the water. These characteristics offer challenges to young and experienced hunters alike. The swamp rabbit is harvested for meat, sport and fur.

Interesting Tidbits
Other names for the swamp rabbit are cane cutter and cane jake. The swamp rabbit is an excellent swimmer.