Throughout its range the gray-sided jack rabbit is preyed upon by a host of enemies, including wolves, coyotes, wildcats, eagles, and several species of hawks and owls. As a result it has become extremely cunning and watchful. It is a beautiful sight to observe the cautious grace with which one that suspects danger but thinks itself unobserved will quietly move out of its form, pause like a statue for a few seconds, then raise its body into a sitting posture and look keenly about, its great upstanding ears turning sensitively to one side and the other, delicately testing the air for sound waves, which may spell approaching peril.
If not alarmed it may then move slowly along by a series of easy little hops, occasionally varied by the single-footed gait of most other mammals. At such times the ears are often raised and lowered as though worked by some mechanism. If the rabbit becomes alarmed, however, it leaps away in quick, springy and graceful bounds, now and then making a high soaring leap as if to command a better view.
These occasional high leaps mark the first stages of alarm. In greater stress, when pursued by a coyote or other swift-footed enemy, the jack rabbit indulges in no such showy performances, but gets down to serious work, and developing marvelous action in a continuous series of rapid, low stretching leaps, with ears lying flat along the shoulders, it skims over the ground almost as swiftly as a bird. Coursing jack rabbits with greyhounds was for many years a favorite sport in different parts of the West. No other dog has much chance for success in the open pursuit of these animals.
THE TRACKS OF THE JACK RABBIT
The tracks of the western jack rabbit resemble those of the cottontail ([see page 492]), but the feet are seldom paired; a typical set is seen in the lower left-hand corner. The bounds cover 10, 12, or even 15 feet each. The tail is held down, so that it leaves a mark in the snow between each bound. Sometimes the animal makes a spy-hop—that is, hops up high to look around. This is seen in the track.
Ordinarily jack rabbits are mute, but when wounded and caught they not infrequently utter a series of long-drawn wailing shrieks which are movingly expressive of terror and pain.
Since the settlement of the Western States numberless predatory animals have been killed and at the same time the cultivation of the soil has produced a dependable increase in the food supply. These changes have resulted in the sporadic increase of jack rabbits in many parts of their range, from Texas to Oregon, until at times they have become a serious menace to agriculture.
During such periods of abundance they invade fields and devastate grain, forage crops, vineyards, and young orchards. In places they sometimes actually destroy entire crops and force settlers to abandon their locations. In winter they swarm about haystacks and destroy many tons of hay. Depredations of this character were committed by them on a considerable scale during 1916 in parts of Oregon, Idaho, and Utah.
During the early development of the San Joaquin Valley, California, jack rabbits became such an intolerable pest that great community drives were organized. Large woven wire corrals with wing fences leading away several miles from the entrance were built on the open plains. The occasions of the drives were made public holidays through all the surrounding region, and people gathered sometimes to the number of from 5,000 to 8,000. A great line of beaters was formed, miles in length, and the jack rabbits were driven between wing fences into corrals. Four such drives in Fresno County in the spring of 1892 resulted in the destruction of 40,000 jack rabbits, one drive netting more than 20,000 animals.