\lo 1 . 8 , No. 4 
Page 6 
the distribution of rabbit tracks when snow was on the ground indicated that the 
distribution of captures could be used to indicate the distribution of rabbit-use 
on the area. Accordingly, the distribution of rabbit-captures in relation to the 
habitat permits an evaluation of the winter habitat requirements of cottontails. 
It is assumed that the habitat needs of rabbits were fulfilled in sections of the 
4-H Area where rabbits were frequently caught, and that some required habitat 
constituent was lacking in the sections where rabbits were seldom caught. 
The 4-H Area was divided into 105 square 1-acre blocks for habitat evaluation. 
The presence or absence of each of the following habitat types was recorded for 
each block: (l) trees over 15 feet tall with closed canopies, (2) trees over 15 
feet tall with open canopies, (3) dense thicket, (4) sparse thicket, (5) annual 
weeds, and (6) bluegrass. Dense thicket was subjectively defined as a multiflora 
rose hedge or its equivalent, and almost all of the dense thicket recorded consisted 
of rose hedges. Sparse thicket included stands of wild rose v Rubus and areas with 
numerous shrubs and/or small trees. A habitat type was considered present if it 
occupied at least 400 square feet of the 1-acre block. 
There were 214 rabbit-captures on the 4-H Area during December, January, 
February, and March, 1964-65. The number of captures occurring in each of the 1- 
acre blocks was noted. 
The importance of each of the six habitat types to overwintering rabbits can 
be evaluated by comparing the numbers of captures occurring in blocks containing 
a given type with the numbers of captures occurring in blocks in which this type 
is absent (Table 5)• Statistical tests for differences among means were performed 
on the transformed data, using X' = These tests indicate that significantly 
fewer rabbit-captures occurred in blocks lacking either dense thicket or sparse 
thicket. They also suggest that rabbit-captures might be associated with stands of 
trees with closed canopies or with stands of annual weeds. 
If it is concluded that thickets are a necessity in winter rabbit habitat, a 
more sensitive test of the importance of stands of trees with closed canopies or 
of stands of annual weeds is provided by considering only the 54 blocks containing 
dense thicket (Table 6). Statistical tests were again performed on the transformed 
data. These tests indicate that when dense thicket was present, the presence or 
absence of stands of trees with closed canopies did not affect the frequency of 
rabbit-captures, but that the presence of annual weeds was associated with an 
increase in the number of rabbit-captures. 
It is concluded that annual weeds and thickets -- in particular the dense 
thickets provided by multiflora rose hedges -- are important constituents of the 
winter habitat of cottontail rabbits on the 4-H Area. 
