Pika
Cottontail Rabbit
The little, abrupt-moving pika is found abundantly among the rock slides and slopes from timberline to the highest alpine peaks. Its high, quick bleat or shrill squeak, ventriloquistic in character, may be heard at any of the large rock piles in the alpine zone. Having a pronounced preference for cooler climate, it is but rarely found in the lower-valley montane zone. Wonderfully camouflaged to blend in with the rocks where it lives, it always crouches on all fours, never “sitting up” as do the similar sized ground squirrels. The pika spends his summer industriously gathering grasses and flowers and “curing” them on the sun-baked rocks to form his winter supply of food or “haypile.” He does not hibernate, but lives actively throughout the winter, snug and secure from winter storms among the rock piles.
COTTONTAIL RABBIT (Sylvilagus nuttallii pinetis)
Small rabbit with feet and ears shorter than a jack rabbit or snowshoe hare. Fur remains dark grayish brown in winter. Short fluffy tail prominent while running. The snowshoe hare in its summer coat resembles the cottontail. However, the hare has larger hind feet and runs with great bounding leaps, in contrast to the short, rapid hops of the cottontail. Total length 16 inches. Ear length slightly over 2 inches.
The common little cottontail frequents the woods and valleys of the montane zone. The prolific mating habits are necessary to maintain their numbers, since they are heavily preyed on by many carnivorous animals. A single female may produce as many as 25 young during a year, in four or five matings. Cottontails, like the hares and jackrabbits, are subject to periodic diseases which may cause their virtual disappearance from a region. However, those rabbits surviving the epidemics will suddenly start to increase, and in a few years the area will again contain hundreds. These sudden changes in populations may occur regularly every five or ten years.
WHITE-TAILED JACK RABBIT (Lepus townsendii townsendii)
A large hare with very long ears (about 5 inches) and long, powerful hind limbs. Coat is a varying shade of gray turning paler in winter. In the very high altitudes, the coat will turn an almost white shade. in which coloration it resembles the snowshoe hare. Total length 24 inches. Found west of the Continental Divide. A subspecies (Lepus townsendii campanius) is found east of the Divide. Description same as above.