At least in summer, they are heavily parasitized by fleas and ticks and may in addition carry tularemia, or rabbit fever.
[Scheffer] (1933: 77-78) found that the young were born from May 5 to July 4 in the Puget Sound area and that there were from 2 to 5, usually 5 per litter.
Lepus americanus washingtonii [Baird]
Lepus washingtonii [Baird], Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 7:333, 1855.
[Lepus americanus] var. Washingtoni J. A. [Allen], Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 17:434, February 17, 1875.
Lepus americanus Washingtoni True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 7:601, 1885.
Type.—Obtained by G. [Suckley] at Steilacoom, Pierce County, Washington, on April 1, 1854; type in United States National Museum.
Racial characters.—Size small for a snowshoe rabbit; color of upper parts dark, in summer between Sayal Brown and Cinnamon, in winter slightly paler, near Pale Cinnamon Buff (capitalized color terms in the accounts of the lagomorphs are after Ridgway, Color Standards and Color Nomenclature, Washington, D. C., 1912); underparts white; soles of feet usually stained yellowish, brownish, or blackish.
Measurements.—Two males and 6 females from the Olympic Peninsula average, respectively: total length 407, 402.5; hind foot 114, 119. Weight of a 408 mm. male from the same locality 2-1/4 lbs.