Eastern cottontail
Amazing fact
The eastern cottontail eats its droppings again to absorb nutrients from its food.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The eastern cottontail eats its droppings again to absorb nutrients from its food.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Eastern cottontail
- Scientific name
- Sylvilagus floridanus
- Japanese name
- トウブワタオウサギ
- Group
- Land mammals
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Lagomorpha
- Family
- Leporidae
- Genus
- Sylvilagus
It lives across a wide area from southern Canada to northwestern South America, and prefers places where woods meet open land.
Its eyes are large for its size. When it runs, it shows the white underside of its short tail.
It is active mainly at dawn, at dusk and at night. Sometimes it stands up on its hind legs to check its surroundings.
How the Eastern cottontail lives
In spring, it molts into a short summer coat that is browner. In summer, it eats green plants such as grasses and clover. In autumn, its coat becomes longer and grayer for winter. In winter, it lives on twigs, bark and buds of woody plants.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- 395–477 mm
- Weight
- 0.8–1.53 kg
- Lifespan
- up to 3 years in the wild
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)
- Diet
- Grasses, wild strawberry, clover and garden vegetables
- Range
- Southern Manitoba and Quebec to Central and northwestern South America
Where the Eastern cottontail has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- トウブワタオウサギ
- 简体中文
- 东部棉尾兔
- 繁體中文
- 東部棉尾兔
- 한국어
- 동부솜꼬리토끼
- Español
- Conejo castellano
- Français
- Lapin à queue blanche
- Deutsch
- Florida-Waldkaninchen
- Português (Brasil)
- Coelho-da-flórida
- Italiano
- Silvilago orientale
- العربية
- أرنب شرقي
- Русский
- Флоридский кролик
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Sylvilagus floridanusChecked: 2026-11-04
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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