Vo 1. 3, No. II 
Page J 
to food present in these areas (mostly grass) or that they preferred areas which 
allowed maximum visibility and mobility. These hypotheses remain to be tested. 
The fact that these rabbits became less active and confined their activity to 
dense woody cover when snow lay on the ground also suggests several hypotheses: 
(1) Since this was the only appreciable snow during the winter of 1 965 - 66 , the 
rabbits may have been "shocked" by the strangeness of snow. It would be difficult 
to interpret the animals' reaction to this snow solely as an aversion to its coldness 
or wetness because the freezing rain which occurred earlier did not cause similar 
curtailment of their activity. (2) The 4 inches of snow covered all herbaceous 
vegetation in mowed areas. Perhaps the animals would not dig through snow to obtain 
food in these areas and preferred to feed upon the exposed stems of woody plants. 
(3) 1 he rabbits may have sensed that they were conspicuous against the expanse of 
unbroken snow and preferred to remain in woody cover for its camouflage value. 
Table 5 . Nighttime use of herbaceous cover by radio-tagged cottontail rabbits 
during winter periods with and without snow on the ground, University of Illinois 
Farms, 1966. 
_ Percent of Total Observations _ Amount of 
Type of Herbaceous No Snow on Trace of Snow Four Inches of Habitat in Study 
Ground Cover Ground* on Ground* Snow on Ground* Area (percent) 
Plowed or Mowed 
G round 
57 
52 
0 
68 
Unmowed Grasses 
17 
11 
0 
2 
Unmowed Weedy Forbs or 
Mixed Grasses and Forbs 
11 
22 
20 
7 
Partly Mowed (strips 
mowed among grape arbors) 
11 
1 1 
80 
9 
Unc1 assified 
4 
3 
0 
14 
Total Observations 
284 
466 
46 
* Three nights of tracking involving 7 rabbits; 12 rabbit-nights in all. 
t Four nights of tracking involving 5 rabbits; 17 rabbit-nights in all. 
* 0 n2 night of tracking involving two rabbits. 
