Western Brush Rabbit, California Brush Rabbit
Sylvilagus bachmani
Did you just glimpse a cotton-ball tail and two brown hind legs disappearing into the brush? You’ve seen Edgewood’s brush rabbit – or part of one – sprinting back to safe cover! The brush rabbit is often seen at dawn and dusk, but you may spot one any time of day nibbling near – or dashing into – trailside bushes.
Appearance
Brush rabbits have gray-brown fur with a pale gray belly and a light undertail. These rabbits are about a foot long and weigh 1-2 pounds, smaller than other cottontails. They have short legs and, compared with most rabbits, short ears. Females are typically larger than males.
ID Tips
The brush rabbit is one of only two members of Leporidae, the rabbit and hare family, found in Edgewood. The other is the black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus), which is really a hare. If you see a petite rabbit with a cotton-like tail, that’s the brush rabbit. The brush rabbit is about half the size of the jackrabbit, and its body is compact rather than long and lean. Its shorter, rounder ears lack the black tips of the jackrabbit’s tall ears.
The brush rabbit is also distinguished by behavior. Slower than the jackrabbit, it’s more likely to be in a scurry zone near scrub cover, rather than out in the tall grasses like the jackrabbit. In response to a threat, the brush rabbit is likely to freeze, hide, or dive into burrows, rather than bound and zigzag as the jackrabbit does.
At Edgewood
Protected open spaces like Edgewood provide the space and resources brush rabbits need to live and raise their young. These camera-trap videos and images show brush rabbits in action at Edgewood: stretching, investigating, exploring fallen logs, and being hunted by bobcats.
Check out iNaturalist for more observations of brush rabbits at Edgewood.
The brush rabbits seen at Edgewood are the subspecies macrorhinus. Since our sources don’t clearly distinguish subspecies, the information on this page generally pertains to the species as a whole.
Habitat and Range
Look for brush rabbits in the preserve’s chaparral, scrub, and grassland areas where they can find dense, brushy cover. They rarely leave the brush for extended periods of time or stray far from shelter, but you may spy them in the open with dense cover nearby. Brush rabbits are a major contributor to the creation of scurry zones at Edgewood!
The range of Edgewood’s brush rabbit subspecies (S. bachmani macrorhinus) extends from San Francisco to Monterey Bay along the coast and from Solano County to Santa Clara County inland.
Diet
Brush rabbits are herbivores (plant eaters) whose diet varies with the season. In spring, they mainly graze on grasses. In fall and winter, the rabbits browse the leaves, twigs, buds, and bark of woody shrubs such as the wood rose, chamise, and California blackberry. Throughout the year, rabbits will eat wildflowers – preferring any of the two dozen Edgewood clovers (Trifolium species).
Predators
Brush rabbits are a primary food source for many predators at Edgewood, including bobcats, mountain lions, gray foxes, coyotes, raptors, owls, and snakes.
Lifecycle
Brush rabbits in the wild have relatively brief lives, typically two years. They breed from December to May, gestating for about 27 days. A female will raise 2-3 litters per year, each with 3-4 bunnies. The babies are born blind, furless, and helpless, staying in their lined, covered nest beneath the brush while the mother rabbit returns to nurse them at night. At about 10 days they open their eyes, and at 14 days they’re ready to leave the nest.
Behavior
You can see brush rabbits all year round at Edgewood, mostly at dusk and in the early morning, though if the weather is pleasant, you may see them basking in the sun during any time of day. Watch for their distinctive tracks in summer’s deep dust on the edge of the trail.
Though they come together to forage and mate, brush rabbits are mostly solitary, with each rabbit having a small individual home range.
When brush rabbits are alarmed, they characteristically respond by thumping a hind foot, sometimes for several minutes, perhaps to warn other rabbits. (Think of the rabbit character Thumper from the movie Bambi.) When pursued by predators, brush rabbits have been known to climb up into shrubs – and even into low trees! They certainly seem comfortable exploring this log at Edgewood.
Native People and Brush Rabbits
Native people were attuned to the seasonal cycles of local wildlife. They hunted brush rabbits in the fall, when the rabbits were fattest and their fur was thickest.
Name Derivation
- Sylvilagus – from the Latin silva, “woods,” and the Greek lagōs, “hare” (although note that the brush rabbit neither dwells in the woods, nor is a hare). Sylvilagus is the genus name for the cottontail and related New World rabbits.
- bachmani – named for John Bachman (1790-1874), American naturalist, for his contributions to the study of North American mammals.
- macrorhinus – from the Greek makros, “long,” and rhinos, “of the nose” – so, “long nosed.”
Fun Fact
Famous rabbits include the Easter Bunny (originally a hare); the Energizer Bunny (mascot of Energizer batteries); Pantoufle (from the novel Chocolat); Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny; Roger Rabbit; the Velveteen Rabbit; the Watership Down rabbits; and Alice in Wonderland’s White Rabbit.
Learn More
Cabrera, K. 2018. Brush rabbit: Tracks and sign. Beartracker’s Animal Tracks Den.
Ellis, M. 2015, Aug. 6. Rabbits and hares. Perspectives. KQED.
References
Anderson, M.K. 2005. Tending the Wild. University of California, Berkeley.
Crane, S. 2002. Sylvilagus bachmani. Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan, Museum of Zoology.
Hood, C. 2019. A Californian’s Guide to the Mammals Among Us. Heyday, Berkeley, California.
Jameson, E. 2004. Mammals of California. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space. Rabbits and Hares.
Polite, C. 2000. Brush rabbit. California Wildlife Habitat Relationships System. California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Wilson, D. 1999. The Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals. The Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington, D.C., and London.