Movements made by cottontails escaping from predators differ from movements made while foraging. The gait is a full run, often eight to ten feet between footprints in snow; the trail is either straight or slightly zig-zag. If possible, the individual will take refuge in a hiding place such as a rock outcrop, brush pile, or thicket. Eight cottontails emerged from such hiding places an average of 22 minutes after the disturbance ceased.
If unable to find a hiding place a pursued cottontail will run 600 to 1200 feet while circling and returning to the area from which it ran. If not closely pursued, it will usually (in 68 per cent of the instances) not enter hiding places, but continue to run ahead of the pursuer. Of 70 released from live-traps and followed, 23 sought refuge in hiding places. The others ran slowly (4 to 7 feet between footprints in the snow) with frequent pauses to look and listen; they usually succeeded in keeping out of my sight. Twelve times the trails of cottontails followed in this manner passed near a form, or other resting place; always the cottontails had paused at the resting place, and twice the individual went into the resting place and ran out again when I approached. Resulting trails were almost circular, covering most (70-90 per cent) of the home range; sometimes three or four complete circuits were made. The trails made when I pursued cottontails ranged in length from 800 to 3,000 feet. A trail recorded for an individual on one night was almost identical with another trail for the same individual recorded another night. The cottontail is not easily driven out of its home range. Paths or runways are used by cottontails escaping from predators in dense vegetation along fence lines, in thickets, or brush piles, or in snow that is eight or more inches deep.
Most of the year cottontails rest in forms of grass or brush near woodland edges but in extremely cold or hot weather they seek the greater protection of the woods. Movements are limited to the woodlands in severe weather, especially when deep snow makes travel difficult.
Hilltop rock outcrops on the area provide excellent protection for the cottontail especially from low temperatures and freezing rain or blowing snow. Eighty per cent of the cottontails resting under the rock outcrops were found in severe winter weather. Fifteen per cent were found in severe summer weather, and five per cent were found at times when the weather was not severe. Undercut creek banks and exposed tree root-systems in eroded gullies were favorite hiding places. Brush that had accumulated in the ravines and stream beds also was used for cover by the cottontail.
In heavy rain a cottontail may move along, neither hopping nor running, with its body close to the ground, head low, ears laid back. Losing its customary alertness it may pass a person without seeing him. At times, I have been able to approach almost close enough to seize one of the miserable creatures. In deep snow cottontails may progress with long bounds carrying them high enough vertically, to clear the surrounding snow.
Courting activities were seen only in evening. Four male cottontails and three females were observed to move an estimated 1200 feet in an evening (1¼ hours) while chasing each other around in an area of less than an acre. It is presumed that this activity was in addition to normal movements made while foraging.
Seven females known to be pregnant or lactating were not observed to move more than 100 feet away from their centers of activity. Their nests were never found. At the same time the males were moving over much larger areas.
The cottontail is most active in the evening or early morning. Of those for which time of capture in live-traps was known 70 per cent were captured in the evening between dusk and 11:00 P.M., 10 per cent were captured between 11:00 P.M. and dawn, and 20 per cent were captured after dawn. Nocturnal rodents and carnivores often stole bait in the night; the percentage of capture of cottontails after dawn might have been larger had bait remained in all the traps.
Except for those flushed, cottontails were seldom seen by day. In walks through the study area approximately three times as many cottontails were flushed at night as in the daytime. On cloudy days cottontails were active longer than on bright days. On dark nights more cottontails were captured in live-traps between 11:00 P.M. and dawn than on bright moonlight nights.
Cottontails were more active (as determined by trap success and frequency of observation) at temperatures between 0° F. and 33° F. than at temperatures between 33° F. and 55° F. Activity of the cottontail increased as the temperature of the air decreased. Activity increased in proportion to the percentage of ground covered by snow. Activity of the cottontail decreased as precipitation increased; there was less activity in rain than in snow and less activity in wet snow than in dry snow. Activity did not vary significantly with depth of snow until snow was more than 8 inches deep, when activity decreased abruptly.