The Jacks are gone...again! Anyone seen any Jack Rabbits?

Jacks are way down at my parents place in the south. They peaked about 3 years ago and then dropped off like a stone.

I have found a few concession block that are still holding jacks but they are few and far between.


Hunt coyotes.
 
jacks don't turn white neither do cotton tails only the varying hare (snowshoe hare) turns white. and yup they stick out like a sore thumb when they turn white but the snow isn't covering the ground. jacks are double the size of both the cotton tail and snow shoe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Hare
 
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When jacks were plentyful we did not have any yotes yet in SW Ontario? There are still a few jacks around but not like they once were? We now have lots of yotes and if lucky we may see one jack a year hunting yotes in our area. When you cook a jack on a oak board you throw the jack away and eat the oak board? Shot a yote and save a jack or is it eat a beaver and save a tree?
 
Do jack rabbits turn white ???

:confused: Of course they do. Here in Southern Alberta in the sixties and early seventies there were zillions of the big fancy jack rabbits around. We used to sell them (frozen) to mink farms for 25 cents each .. one year we got 40 cents ... :) In winter I used to see them bunched up around groves of trees ... literally hundreds of them !!! I think that loss of habitat has really hurt them .. I see the odd one in the fall while hunting but I never bother them anymore ... I just leave them for the kids with .22's who some day dream of hunting lions and elephants ... but for now ....
 
well I've been curious recently, because here in Calgary we have lots of "white rabbits" running around, but I have no idea whether they were jacks or hares or cottontails or what. I always heard that jacks were the size of small cars, and these "white rabbits" seem smaller, so I have a hankering to know what the hell they are exactly.
 
Went out for Jacks yesterday. One of our better areas in years past was loaded with coyote tracks but not one jack track. We pushed our four BIG coyotes from the creek bottom in this concession. I popped one, my buddy got another and two got out. Followed up on one into the next block and spent an hour crawling through the cedars until I finally popped him too as he exited and tried to sneek through the hardwoods. We walked two other blocks looking for the other one and did not see a jack track in the whole area.
As CROWCA said, the jacks here are true European hare that can weigh up to 14 lbs and stay brown all year long.
 
I seen maybe 3 differnet sets of jack tracks this year. quite a few cottontails snowshoes.


coyotes are real common around here now. No doubt they are putting a dent on the rabbit population
 
FYI
The "Jack" as we know it , is actually the European Hare which was brought into Canada around the 1850's , along with the Starling and English Sparrow.
 
Maybe it's a different species in eastern Canada, but this is what we call a jack rabbit in Alberta and Saskatchewan. And yes, they change colors. The ones I have shot in the winter have been white, and the ones in the summer brown / gray. There are lots of them in the city of Calgary, they come in on the railway lines and then "breed like rabbits."

http://www.swf.sk.ca/kids/jackrabbit.shtml

"Not a true rabbit but actually a hare, jackrabbits are born with fur and open eyes and weigh about 100 grams at birth. The mother jackrabbit makes a den in an old burrow or simply shallows out a "form" in the ground in which she gives birth. Litter size averages four babies called leverets.

Babies are able to run very shortly after birth. Leverets are weaned at about five to six weeks of age and will reach adult weight of 3-6 kg and an average length of 56 cm in 3-4 months.

Jackrabbits are herbivores, surviving on plants. Summer diets consist of a variety of green vegetation including clover, dandelions, alfalfa, grasses and cultivated grains. In winter their usual food consists of dried grasses, roots, bark of small fruit and berry trees and cultivated and stored hay.

This hare is very fast. Speeds up to 64 kph are not uncommon with leaps as long as 5 meters. The White-tailed Jackrabbit is brown with white underside in summer and all white in winter. The tips of ears are always black and his tail is always white. The scientific name for the White-tailed Jackrabbit is Leapus townsendii.


White-tailed jackrabbits range in Saskatchewan Jackrabbit skull

Photo courtesy of www.skullsunlimited.com"
 
Haven't many at all in south Oxford county. Tracks are there, but they seem to be elusive. Actually saw lots of tracks in the bush during December deer hunt. People have been yote hunting this month with dogs, and i recall the numbers of 120+ yotes killed last year closer to longpoint. Hopefully the Jacks will multiply, but as of yet, not even one of about 8 people got a single Jack this year.
 
Scott N, very interesting, did not know hat the west had different jacks than the ones in Ontario. Here our jack rabbits are actually European Hares or lepus europeus and do not turn white in the winter.

I love hearing the old stories of jacks being everywhere years and years ago. My grandpa used to tell me that he would go to Kensington Market and they would be piled up in huge mounds 6' tall for sale. Could it be that harvesting them by the bushel fulls lead to there decline? Who knows, but I doubt it that was the only reason. Urban sprawl has probably had the biggest impact along with the increasing number of coyotes.

We still get the odd jacks on our hunts, but haven't had a double digit day of jacks in over 5 years. I sure hope this is a cyclical thing as I love getting out on the snowshoes chasing jacks. It's great excercise and gives you something to do in Jan and Feb to avoid cabin fever.

Do a jack a favour and kill a yote.
 
Pretty sure you're right about the cause of the downturn in population in Ontario, bukee. Unless there's WAY more people hunting jacks in Ontario, human predation is unlikely to be the cause. Pressure from natural predators such as coyotes and birds of prey along with winter conditions and food supply are generally the cause of population cycles in small game animals.

However, hunting pressure during a low phase in the population cycle can certainly exacerbate and extend the down side of the cycle. For some species, mortality due to human encroachment on habitat is also a factor, although I doubt it has anything to do with hare populations, since they seem to thrive in urban environments where their natural predators are suppressed.

Mind you, in view of the different species you call "Jacks" in Ontario, maybe your jacks don't adapt to urban development like ours do.
 
Mount Sweetness congrats on getting yourself a couple of jacks. Good eating there for you. I've shot all of my jacks with the shotgun over he years, but I have to give the rifle thing a try, sounds like a blast.
 
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