Jack rabbits in Illinois?
Ed Graham of Mackinaw swears he saw a jack rabbit recently while driving through Livingston County near Strawn. If Graham is correct, his sighting would be the first white-tailed jack rabbit spotted outside the northwest corner of Illinois.
“If this wasn’t a jack rabbit someone has been feeding growth hormones to the cottontails there,” said Graham, a longtime rabbit hunter who became familiar with jack rabbits while living in New Mexico.
Jack rabbits, which are much larger than their more common cottontail cousins, have been reported over the years at the sandy Savanna Army Depot in
Jo Daviess County. And Donald Hoffmeister in “Mammals of Illinois” lists historic records for five other northwestern counties: Lee, Stephenson, Carroll, Whiteside and Ogle.
That makes sense to Graham, who grew up in Tampico and said he remembers hearing stories about jack rabbits near Morrison.
Does it make sense to anyone else out there? Do you have a jack rabbit sighting or story to share?
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I swear I saw a chupacabra tonight, and the 6 margaritas had nothing to do with it either.
We’ll be o.k. Jeff, as long as we don’t get any pronghorn antelopes moving into Illinois. When they cross with the jackrabbits we’ll get the dreaded jack-a-lope. I’m sure you are familiar with the havoc that those critters can wreak on the unsuspecting public. Imagine an animal that is as fast as an antelope but with the munching power of jackrabbit. Why large sections of the range the the Western U.S. has been laid bare by this critter!
I saw a Jack-in-the-box in Wal Mart once.
Let’s face it… It all comes back to the standing corn!
Seen a dead Jack rabbit along the road - a Cougar was eating it…. (Drum roll Please!)
saw a bear fighting a cougar over a jackrabbit yesterday it was unreal(hahahahahahah)
I saw a Jack once, his name was Blagojevich.
HE HE…...boybow89…...ya got a big chuckle outta me….Still chucklin.. That was good !
are they going to have a doe only season? if so it should be in december not january….
might be swamp rabbits (?)
Hey PBR here’s a picture of a genuine Illinois “swamp rabbit.”
How do you know that wasnt a swamp rabbit?
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/indiana/misc/art21584.html
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