FROM THE ARCHIVES-January 13, 2009-RABBITS AND HARE 2009

 

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

RABBITS AND HARE 2009

Above (clockwise) the hounds blow across the beaver flow after an Appalachian Cottontail rabbit. Andy Hoover, across the beaver flow, looks on, wondering and hoping the ice is thick enough to hold the hounds. An authentic Appalachian Cottontail rabbit dashes across the ice. And, Little Toby Creek Blacky, veteran of many a rabbit                                                                          chase crashes up the creek bank at full voice.

TALLY HO!! and GREETINGS from THE HIGH PLATEAU of THE ALLEGHENY,

I am finally able to report some good news.

Last Friday, although we ("Old" Jim, Andy and myself) did not find a Snowshoe Hare we did manage to find two hard running Appalachian Cottontail rabbits. The two Appalachians took the hounds around and around for almost three (3) hours running it like a tag team event. Finally, some good exercise for the hounds. The "A" Team did an outstanding job.

The "A" Team consists of; Andy's Nellie and Molly and my Patch, Gracie and Blacky. Jim's Lucky dog had hitched a ride home and was in the pen.

Then on Saturday, Jim, Andy and I took, Molly, Nellie, Lucky, Patch, Gracie and Speckles to one of our old reliable places because of the impending storm and found an Omnipotent Snowshoe Hare. The hounds once again did an outstanding and superior job while chasing the old hare for over three (3) hours. Andy had confirmed sightings on three different occasions. Because of the weather we caught the hounds and headed in. It was another great day!

Yesterday, Monday, Andy and I ventured onto the High Plateau in search of yet another Snowshoe Hare chase. The hounds once again were doing their great job of searching but after five hours it was beginning to look fruitless. But, much to the handlers surprise the hounds hit a hare and the chase was on. Beautiful hound music rang across the Allegheny High Plateau for more than three (3) hours before we called off the hounds. It was getting late and darkness would soon be setting in. At one point during the chase it sounded like the hounds were ready to eat the poor little hare. I made the sighting and what a beautiful white hare it was. The woods was full of fresh snow making it difficult to see very far. I was very fortunate to catch a fleeting glimpse.

In case you have never heard of an "Appalachian Cottontail" or "Allegheny Cottontail" rabbit let me explain by reprinting here an article I wrote for the Rabbit Hunter magazine or one of them back in September of 2003.

THE APPALACHIAN COTTONTAIL
By Joe Ewing, Sr.

This article may be copied or used as you  because you have my permission as it is my property.

This article was written and published in a 2003 issue of THE RABBIT HUNTER magazine. In 2015 I retold this epic story and again it was published in THE RABBIT HUNTER and other magazines with updated information. There is now new and revealing infromation regarding the Appalachian cottontail so I've written another article about the Appalachain which may be published in THE RABBIT HUNTER this fall. This is the story from 2003.

THE APPALACHIAN COTTONTAIL

Writing by

Joe Ewing

High HareMan

Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny

August 24, 2020 writer's note: Old hare hunter Jim Hanson passed a few years ago and now hunts with that phantom pack of hare hounds we have all known and loved which roams the Allegheny on many clear moonlit nights in the dead of winter. I think of Jim often as we spent many hours together roaming the Allegheny National Forest and the Allegheny Plateau in search of the elusive snowshoe hare. We hunted hare in Maine and New York and spent many miles looking through the windshield of the dog truck reminiscing about the phone company and many other subjects which were too deep for us to understand. My favorite memories of all are the hours we spent driving the forest service roads, in the dead of winter, with temperatures way below zero in search of the ellusive snowshoe hare.

 

Old hare hunter Jim Hanson and I were sitting around a campfire one evening this summer in the Enchanted Mountains of Western New York. We had spent the day scouting for new cottontail cover in a new, to us, section of the country. The Enchanted Mountains of Cattaraugus  County are well known for the plentiful game that resides in its hillsides and fields. The Allegheny River winds its way along the southern border and Cattaraugus Creek forms the northern boundary. Cattaraugus County is the number one county in New York State for turkey hunting and in the top three for deer hunting. It was Jim’s idea to check out the rabbit cover, which is quite hard to do without dogs. Mostly we were just wasting away the summer.

CATTARAUGUS, from a Seneca Indian word meaning “bad smelling banks,” referring to the odor of natural gas leaking from rock seams. 

We were sitting around the campfire reminiscing and making plans, when I said to Old Jim, "Jim, did you know that a couple years back a trio of researchers discovered a brand new breed of cottontail rabbit?"

"What the heck are you babbling about? Do you mean there are actually people who study wild rabbits?" Jim demanded.

"Apparently there are a lot of them spending a lot of your money. A Penn State University researcher is going to spend $115,000 to count snowshoe hare in northern Pennsylvania." I explained. "And don’t ask me how they plan on doing it. This is only one of fifteen projects approved for funding by the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Fish & Boat Commission to study ‘troubled wildlife and fish species.’"

"Okay, I won’t go there, but what about this new rabbit?" Jim asked.

"There is an article in the August 2003 Pennsylvania Game News by a Marcia Bonta that states that in 1982 three scientists ‘split’ the New England cottontail into two species." I informed him.

"Did not know that". Said Jim. "What is a New England cottontail?"

"The New England cottontail is a separate and very rare species of cottontail rabbit. The Eastern cottontail is found almost everywhere unlike the New England cottontail whose range is only New England and northern New York State."

"Where does this new cottontail live?" Jim interrupted impatiently.

"The new species of cottontail are secretive, forest-dwelling rabbits. There are never too many found in any one place and they range only within the Appalachian Mountain chain from eastern New York, down through northeastern Alabama. They inhabit woods, shrubby areas, and brush. This new cottontail resides in dense evergreens and deciduous cover at high elevations. It is associated with conifer and heath habitat, and prefers thicker wooded cover than the eastern cottontail." I reported.

"What is a heath habitat?" Jim asked.

"I think ‘heath’ is a foreign word meaning an extensive tract of uncultivated open land covered with low shrubs and the like." I informed. "Probably like huckleberry, mountain laurel or even blueberry."

"What does this new cottontail eat?" Jim wanted to know.

"It eats a variety of grasses, ferns, forbs, and shrubs."

"It eats Fords?" Jim questioned.

"No, no, I said forbs. A forb is a broad-leaved herb growing in a field or meadow. It also appears to be the only cottontail that feeds extensively on conifer needles. In the winter they also eat twigs and bark."

"They bark," Jim acted surprised, "at the moon?"

"No, they eat the bark of saplings". I corrected. "Just like most rabbits and hare".

"If that is the case, Jim asked, is there a difference in the droppings?"

"Negative", I continued, "In fact there is no difference in the fecal pellets of cottontails or hares to the naked eye. Did you know that rabbits and hares expel two types of fecal pellets, greenish and brown? The greenish pellets contain partially digested vegetation and are commonly reingested. This process is known as ‘coprophagy’. In addition, before you ask, the greenish pellets have a high protein content and contain large amounts of B vitamins produced by intestinal bacteria. This way they make optimum use of the food available and they do not leave behind any nutrients. This process is important to their survival as they can spend more time in cover and less time out in the open feeding."

"What do they call this new rabbit?" Jim asked.

"They call this new species of cottontail the Appalachian cottontail or sometimes it is called the ‘Allegheny’ cottontail. It is obvious why it is called the Appalachian but Allegheny refers to the Allegheny Mountain in the Dolly Sods of West Virginia were the Appalachian cottontail was first named." I reported. "The Dolly Sods is an interesting story all its own. The Dolly Sods Wilderness is located on the Cheat-Potomac Ranger District of the Monongahela National Forest in Tucker and Randolph Counties near Elkins, West Virginia. It is part of the 106 million acre National Wilderness Preservation System. Altitudes range from 3,200 feet to more than 4,000 feet and are said to be a little bit of Canada placed too far south."

"Sounds like a great place for snowshoe hare", Jim observed.

"Yeah, they reportedly have snowshoe hare. Hey, maybe we should go to West Virginia hare hunting sometime?" I suggested. "The Dolly Sods sounds like a remarkable place."

"What does this Appalachian cottontail look like?" Jim wanted to know.

"The Appalachian cottontail supposedly resembles the eastern cottontail very closely. It differs only in its slightly smaller size, shorter ears, and greater amount of black on the back. A narrow black patch is present on top of the head between the ears. The rufous or rusty nap patch characteristic of the eastern cottontail is lacking. So say Linzey and Brecht of Wytheville Community College in Wytheville, Virginia. Some scientists admit that Appalachian cottontails are difficult to distinguish in the field from Eastern cottontails. It gets better, I read that the only way they, the scientists, can honestly tell any difference is by doing an autopsy and measuring the cranium."

"Very fascinating, are there any Appalachian cottontails in Pennsylvania?" Jim asked.

"According to Bonta, scientists first assumed that the Dolly Sods was the preferred habitat of the Appalachian cottontails. But she says that a Dr. Ralph Harnishfeger of Lock Haven University, in Pennsylvania, claims that Appalachian cottontails are found in the very young regenerating forest stands where the tornado went through in 1985 in northern Clinton County. They are also found in a blowdown where pines were planted between windrowed debris, with dense bramble cover and in a dense stand of scrub oak on a SGL (State Game Lands) clear-cut site in Centre County."

"There are cottontail rabbits in the blowdowns in Forest, Elk, and McKean Counties. Do you think they might be this Allegheny cottontail?" Jim asked enthusiastically.

"Do you remember a couple years back when the ANF (Allegheny National Forest) Forester sent us up to the Timberline Trail Head in Elk County to kill the snowshoe hare which were eating his apple trees and all we could find were cottontails?"

"Yeah, I remember, we even killed a couple. Those cottontails ran so big we honestly thought for sure the hounds were chasing snowshoe hare, and then Little Joe shot a cottontail." Jim reminisced. "You wrote in one of your articles that we were starting to find cottontails because of the declining dear herd."

"That’s right, I wrote ‘In Pennsylvania, especially northwest Pennsylvania, the deer herd has been out of control for years. Research has shown that the over-population of deer causes subtle but significant changes to the present and future forest habitat, to the harm of the deer herd and small game, which includes snowshoe hare. Large numbers of deer in relatively small areas lead to over-browsing of forest vegetation. Heavy damage to low-level vegetation also hurts other wildlife. Small game is less abundant. Escape cover, nesting areas, and food sources are severely restricted for such wildlife as the snowshoe hare, ruffed grouse, woodcock, cottontail, turkey and many non-game species. We have started to see more cottontail rabbits in remote forest locations. Maybe, just maybe, the deer herd controls are starting to show some sign of "rabbitat" improvements.’" I recalled.

"Maybe your prognostication is coming true and maybe it is possible that some of those rabbits are Appalachian." Declared Old Jim.

"Maybe…"

There you have it. Now you know.