It has been a banner year for rabbits in my backyard, but usually I see only the white cottontails as they zigzag out of sight. Back in June, I could count as many as 10 as I walked the 150 feet from the house to the garage. So I began walking the distance slowly and talked to the cottontails in a gentle voice. Over time, they lost their fear of me. By mid-August I could walk within 20 feet of them, and we would simply exchange glances. I was no longer a threat.

Other threats, however, remained. I'm now lucky to see three of four rabbits in the yard. I suspect the growing coyote population has a taste for bunnies.

One of the cottontail's most interesting anti-predator strategies is to eat fast and then hide in dense vegetation and brush piles while they digest their food. They eat succulent greens such as dandelions, clover and grasses during the growing season. As the temperature drops, they switch to woody plants such as apple, black cherry, blackberry and sumac. They can consume up to 40 percent of their body weight every day.

Evidence of rabbit browsing is easy to recognize. Their sharp incisors clip twigs cleanly and leave behind a distinct diagonal cut; deer break twigs off and leave behind ragged edges.

What makes rabbits' foraging ecology interesting is that they are coprophagous -- they eat their own droppings. Eating quickly minimizes time spent in the open, but leads to inefficient digestion. So they excrete two types of droppings.

After a meal passes through the digestive system the first time, rabbits pass soft, green pellets, which they re-ingest upon expulsion.

During the second trip through the digestive system, vitamins and other nutrients that were not absorbed the first time are absorbed. The familiar piles of dark, round pellets we know as rabbit droppings are the true end product of cottontail digestion.

The easiest way to improve cottontail habitat is to provide brush piles for resting and escape cover. A brush pile 12 feet in diameter and 3 feet high, however, is temporary. It lasts only two or three years, so new material should be added every fall.

Rabbit season runs Oct. 24-Nov. 28, Dec. 14-23 and Dec. 26-Feb. 6, 2010, with a daily limit of four and a possession limit of eight.

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