# White-tailed Jackrabbit

*Lepus townsendii*

To evade predators, they can leap up to 16 feet in a single bound and reach sprinting speeds of up to 40 miles per hour.

- **Taxonomy:** Animalia › Chordata › Mammalia › Lagomorpha › Leporidae › Lepus
- **IUCN Red List status:** Least Concern
- **Population trend:** decreasing
- **Biome:** grassland
- **Habitat:** Open grasslands, prairies, sagebrush steppes, and alpine meadows.
- **Diet:** Grasses, clover, and forbs in summer; woody twigs, bark, and buds in winter.
- **Range:** United States Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, Southern Canada
- **Size:** 56-65 cm (22-26 inches) long, weighing 3-4.5 kg (6.6-10 lbs)
- **Lifespan:** 1 to 4 years in the wild
- **Active:** crepuscular
- **Threats:** Habitat loss due to agriculture and urbanization, competition with introduced species, and diseases such as Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus (RHDV2).
- **Safe to approach?:** Harmless and highly skittish. Maintain a safe distance of 15-20 feet to avoid startling them. They will almost always flee rather than confront humans. In the extremely rare event of a bite or scratch from handling a cornered animal, wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water and seek medical attention due to the risk of tularemia.

## About

The white-tailed jackrabbit ( Lepus townsendii ), also known as the prairie hare and the white jack , is a species of hare found in western North America. Like all hares and rabbits, it is a member of the family Leporidae of order Lagomorpha. It is a solitary individual except where several males court a female in the breeding season. Litters of four to five young are born in a form, a shallow depression in the ground, hidden among...

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/f512d4ae-931f-4fba-8618-0d74938d6d6a
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/43145
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepus townsendii
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/139804193/medium.jpg (TheIguana, CC-BY-SA, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.