WHO LIVES IN THE SWAMP AND PREFERS TO POOP ON LOGS?

Biologists do funny things and because we are out in the wilderness we need back-up; which means there are witnesses for the funny things we do.  On one such occurrence, I found myself invited to participate in a swamp rabbit survey.  (Cue image of serious biologist in a lab coat, interviewing a swamp rabbit and recording the details on a clipboard.)  In reality, we were supposed to walk through the swampy bottomland hardwoods and check logs.  These logs had been placed around specifically for the swamp rabbits to poop on.  Apparently, swamp rabbits prefer to poop on logs.  There is probably a joke there somewhere….  Our job was to check the logs for swamp rabbit poop, record it, and use that information to estimate the swamp rabbit population size.   Yes, some biologists know how often a swamp rabbit poops.  The amount of fresh poop in an area can be used to estimate how many swamp rabbits pooped there – I warned you that biologists do funny things!

So, what is a swamp rabbit?  The Sylvilagus aquaticus (literally meaning water cottontail rabbit) is the largest of the cottontails.  They spend their day in depressions in tall grass, or other cover.  If they get spooked up by a predator, they will jump into water with just their noses sticking out. 

All members of a swamp rabbit population will breed around the same time.  This begins with the females chasing or threatening the males.  Once copulation occurs the females will chase the males again.  Swamp rabbits are described as “polygynadrous” which means those swamp rabbits are promiscuous.  After about a month of pregnancy the female will prepare a nest of grass and twigs.  Right before giving birth, she will rip the fur off her own belly and use that to line the nest.  Gosh I’m glad we don’t do that!  Especially since females have 1-6 litters each year of 1-6 offspring.  I guess they do mate like…rabbits.