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Jack Rabbits


T Fisher

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What happen to the mighty Jack Rabbit ? I use to chase them in the Lindsay, Beaverton, Woodville areas years ago more for a good walk with my 22. These days I have to venture west Stratford to Chatam to find any. There were days of old where you could walk fields and spook double digits.

 

ANY ONE KNOW WHAT HAPPEN.

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The population is cyclic, right now the coyote population is very high, it will crash and then the rabbits will increase, then the coyotes will come back because of abundant food and the rabbits will go down again , and so on and so on. Cottontails and jackrabbits ( European Hares ) don't really compete with each other, cottontails prefer brushy areas and jacks are more of an open field animal. Best place I found to jump jacks were open ploughed fields, they get nestled down in between the furrows and let the snow drift in over them. You could try looking for them in that type of field as well as in the hedgerows.

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There used to be loads of Jacks, Snowshoe and Cottontails in rural Cookstown when I was growing up. Fields of snow would be packed down with their tracks. It has been over 15 years since I have seen a Jack or Snowshoe. Very few Cottons around still.

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is everybody missing the fact that as the number of houses and buildings and destruction of natural living spaces of these animals takes place their gonna move out. come up "north" like north bay, which i still consider fairly south and see how many of the little fury buggers you can count in an afternoon walk. If ya see less than 5 in 3 hours of walking ya better see an optometrist

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I lived just outside the town of Burford, ON for a few years as a child. I use to bike everywhere to hang with friends and go fishing

in random ponds, creeks etc. etc.

 

When the sun started dropping we use to see tons of them in the ditches that run along the country roads.

This was between 1989-1992.

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The population is cyclic, right now the coyote population is very high, it will crash and then the rabbits will increase, then the coyotes will come back because of abundant food and the rabbits will go down again , and so on and so on. Cottontails and jackrabbits ( European Hares ) don't really compete with each other, cottontails prefer brushy areas and jacks are more of an open field animal. Best place I found to jump jacks were open ploughed fields, they get nestled down in between the furrows and let the snow drift in over them. You could try looking for them in that type of field as well as in the hedgerows.

 

Very well said, what was it about 5-7 years ago the coyotes had that desise, and they dropped in numbers and the rabbits picked up, now the coyotes are back so the rabbits numbers have dropped.

 

FLEX

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I live in Essex county bush and farm fields all around for the last 6 years and have seen one Jack, but I have seen many Coyote's. Still a few Cotton tails.

 

 

Coyote numbers were low a few years back (mange I think). Were rabbit populations in general higher then?

 

Just curious...

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Jackrabbits seemed to declined since the early 70's in Durham and York regions when farmers started to plant huge amounts of corn . Pesticides were sprayed on the tender young shoots about the same time the doe was having her litter of young ones. She runs through corn field: poison gets on her under side; end result she is poisoning them at feeding time. Just my theory.

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