Eastern Cottontail
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40 free Eastern Cottontail trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The eastern cottontail is the wild rabbit most North Americans know best, the brown shape nibbling the lawn in the evening that shows a flash of fluffy tail when it bolts. It is common from farm country to city parks, yet most people know surprisingly little about how it lives. This quiz turns the best eastern cottontail fun facts into questions. They cover how the rabbit looks and how it gets away from danger, what it eats through the seasons, how a mother hides and feeds her young, the hunters it has to watch for, its wild cousins, and the stories, songs and legends that carry its name. It is written for curious kids and their parents, teachers, backyard wildlife watchers and quiz teams. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so even a wrong guess leaves you with a new fact to share.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A virus that grows horn-like lumps on cottontail rabbits may have inspired which mythical creature?
Jackalope
Jackalope tales of antlered rabbits likely grew from real animals: the Shope papilloma virus raises horn-like growths on or near a cottontail's head.
Q 02Which president used a paddle to fend off a swimming swamp rabbit, cousin of the eastern cottontail?
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter was fishing on a pond in Georgia in 1979 when the animal swam straight at his boat, and the press gleefully labelled it a killer rabbit attack.
Q 03To squeeze more nutrients from tough plants, an eastern cottontail swallows what for a second time?
Its own droppings
Its own droppings, or rather the soft pellets passed after plants ferment in the gut, are eaten again so the goodness can be absorbed on a second trip.
Q 04Eastern cottontails rarely dig, so in harsh weather they shelter in burrows left by which animals?
Groundhogs
Groundhogs leave behind roomy dens that cottontails borrow in deep snow or bitter cold; the rest of the time the rabbit simply rests above ground.
Q 05Like every rabbit, the eastern cottontail is physically unable to do which of these things?
Vomit
Vomit is something no rabbit can bring up, so a blocked gut is dangerous, which is one reason a rabbit's diet needs plenty of fibre.
Q 06Which singing cowboy scored a 1950 hit with the Easter song "Here Comes Peter Cottontail"?
Gene Autry
Gene Autry was asked to record it because his Christmas records had sold so well, and the song ended up giving the Easter Bunny an informal name.
Q 07The snowshoe hare does what each winter that its smaller cousin the eastern cottontail never does?
Turns white
Turns white is the hare's trick; the cottontail only moults into a longer, greyer coat and counts on thick brush to stay hidden in the snow.
Q 08Pet bunnies are not tame eastern cottontails; every domestic breed descends from which wild species?
European rabbit
European rabbit is the only rabbit species people have ever domesticated, so a wild cottontail on the lawn is a more distant cousin of a pet bunny than it looks.
Q 09A mother eastern cottontail leaves her nest alone most of the day, visiting to nurse at which times?
Dawn and dusk
Dawn and dusk are her only visits; before leaving she pulls the nest lining back over the babies, so a nest can look abandoned when it is not.
Q 10Which nocturnal bird of prey relies on the eastern cottontail as a staple food across much of North America?
Great horned owl
Great horned owl diets across much of the continent rest on just a handful of prey species, and this rabbit is one of only three rabbits and hares on that short list.
Q 11Many young eastern cottontails are born with which marking on the forehead that fades as they grow?
A white blaze
A white blaze runs down the forehead of newborns and fades with age, though some adults keep a small pale star there for life.
Q 12What name is given to the shallow scratched-out hollow where an eastern cottontail rests by day?
A form
A form is only a body-sized dip in grass or under brush, yet a cottontail will spend most of the day tucked into one, hidden by its camouflage.
Q 13A female eastern cottontail lines her grassy nest with which soft material just before giving birth?
Her own fur
Her own fur, plucked from her chest and belly, makes a warm blanket for a nest that is no more than a cup-shaped dip about as wide as a hand.
Q 21Flushed by a predator, an eastern cottontail usually races for cover using which kind of movement?
Zigzag bounds
Zigzag bounds throw a pursuer off line, and each leap can carry the rabbit several body lengths at a top speed of about 18 miles per hour.
Q 22Rabbit fever, which people can catch from an infected eastern cottontail, has which formal name?
Tularemia
Tularemia takes its name from Tulare County, California, where it was first identified; ticks and deer flies can pass it on as well as infected carcasses.
Q 23In eastern cottontail courtship, a pair crouch face to face until one of them does what?
Leaps into the air
Q 14Introduced eastern cottontails now outnumber a lookalike native rabbit named after which region?
New England
New England cottontails need dense young thickets, while the introduced eastern species copes with fields and yards; the two look so alike that DNA or a skull check is needed to tell them apart.
Q 15Eastern cottontails are not rodents; with hares and pikas, they belong to which order of mammals?
Lagomorphs
Lagomorphs were long filed as a kind of rodent and only became an order of their own in 1912, although the two groups are still close relatives.
Q 16When snow buries the grass, eastern cottontails eat which parts of shrubs and young trees?
Bark and twigs
Bark and twigs of maple, birch, oak and sumac carry them through winter, which is why orchard owners and foresters count the cottontail as a pest.
Q 17How do adult female eastern cottontails usually compare in weight with the adult males?
Slightly heavier
Slightly heavier females are the rule, though the sexes overlap so much that they cannot be told apart at a glance; a typical adult weighs under three pounds.
Q 18An adult female eastern cottontail is known by which name?
Doe
Doe is the word, and the male is a buck, the same pairing of names used for deer; she raises every litter alone, because the male plays no part in caring for the young.
Q 19Baby eastern cottontails still in the nest share which name with young foxes?
Kits
Kits, short for kittens, is the modern word for baby rabbits, while a hare under a year old goes by the older name leveret.
Q 20Unlike newborn hares, newborn eastern cottontails enter the world in which condition?
Blind and helpless
Blind and helpless at birth and weighing about an ounce, they grow fast: their eyes open within a week and they start exploring outside the nest at about two weeks.
Leaps into the air, and then the partner takes a turn; the display usually happens after dark and follows a chase and a bout of sparring.
Q 24Eastern cottontails are thought to signal alarm to others by thumping which body part on the ground?
Their hind feet
Their hind feet deliver the thump, and the same powerful legs are a nesting mother's weapon: she may rush an intruder and rake it with her claws.
Q 25Eastern cottontails are usually quiet, but which sound may one make when seized by a predator?
A shrill scream
A shrill scream, startlingly loud for such a small animal, may shock an attacker and warn other rabbits; soft purrs and grunts are saved for play, mating and fights.
Q 26When an eastern cottontail first senses danger nearby, what does it usually do before it bolts?
Freeze in place
Freeze in place is the first move: a still, brown rabbit is hard to pick out, and it only bursts away if the threat comes too close.
Q 27The eastern cottontail, at home in suburbs and farmland, holds which status on the IUCN Red List?
Least concern
Least concern, the safest category, fits the most widespread and abundant rabbit in North America, found from southern Canada to northern South America.
Q 28Which plant, notorious for giving people an itchy rash, do eastern cottontails eat in winter?
Poison ivy
Poison ivy vines are on the winter menu in Pennsylvania, along with blackberry and raspberry canes, once the green plants of summer are gone.
Q 29The eastern cottontail's grey-brown coat has a patch of which colour on the back of the neck?
Rusty red
Rusty red fur on the nape is a handy field mark, and the rest of the coat shifts with the seasons, turning browner for the warm months.
Q 30Roughly how long is an eastern cottontail pregnant before giving birth to a litter of five or so?
About a month
About a month, usually 28 days, and she mates again soon after giving birth, so one female may raise three or four litters in a single year.