 By: Carissa JansenINTRODUCTION-
Hello boys and girls today we are going to learn about the black-tailed jackrabbit. The black-tailed jackrabbit is not really a rabbit at all. It is a hare. The difference between rabbits and hares is the fact that baby hares are born with fur and their eyes open and rabbits are not. Black-tailed jackrabbits live in the Sonoran desert and are known for their big ears, black tails and top notch speed. If you live here in Arizona, I'm sure you've seen one hopping around. Now let's read on and learn some more interesting facts about the black-tailed jackrabbit. There is a fun activity and a quiz to see how much you have learned. All right let's get hopping!
I am the Black-tailed Jackrabbit and I love to hop around the desert. You can tell me apart from my cousins by my gigantic ears with black tips and my black tail of course. By my name you would think I was a rabbit, when in fact I am a hare. Some people consider me a pest because there are so many of us. We usually live between 1 and 5 years.  WHERE DO I LIVE? You can find me wandering the Sonoran Desert of western Arizona all the way down through northern Mexico. I love the wide open spaces of the desert because it gives me plenty of room to run and allows me to keep an eye on my predators.
I am an herbivore, so I love to eat plants and as a desert dweller, I have slim pickings when it comes to food. My favorites are grass, leaves, twigs, sage brush and cacti. I only come out and eat after dark, so my predators can’t sneak up on me. I conserve water by eating my food twice. After I digest it, I eat it again so I can get all the water out of it. Water is scarce in the desert, so a hares got to do what a hares got to do.
HOW DO I LOOK? I feel that my best feature is my long tall ears. I can adjust the amount of blood that flows through them to help me control my body heat on the hot desert days. They also help me hear my predators coming from miles away. My fur is tan and sometimes silver. It helps me blend in with the desert landscape. My feet are even covered in fur to protect them from the hard, hot ground. A female is called a doe and they are bigger than the males. We can weigh anywhere between 9 to 13 pounds are 16 to 28 inches long and 2 to 5 inches tall.
 HOW DO I REPRODUCE?
When I find a mate we love to jump and chase each other around the desert. Our babies are called leverts and they are born with their eyes wide open and lots of fur. That is what makes us hares different from rabbits. The mother will have a litter of 1-6 leverts at a time. She hides them during the day and returns at night to feed them. She will care for them for one month before they are let loose to explore on their own.
FUN FACTS ABOUT ME! A fun fact about me is that I can run up 40 mph!!! I can go as fast as a car driving through your neighborhood! I can also jump up to 5 feet in the air. Students can write a story about a day in the life of a black-tailed jackrabbit. you can then make the story into a picture book.
Students can paint a picture of a black-tailed jackrabbit. These pictures can then be displayed.
Students can make a diorama of a black-tailed jackrabbits habitat.
YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ME FROM THE SOURCES BELOW!
Black-tailed jackrabbit http://thewebsiteofeverything.com/animals/mammals/Lagomorpha/Leporidae/Lepus/Lepus-californicus.html- Look here to find some fun and ineresting facts about the black-tailed jackrabbit. http://voices.yahoo.com/animal-facts-black-tailed-jackrabbit-4176433.html- Here you will find information on what I like to eat and do.
http://thewebsiteofeverything.com/animals/mammals/Lagomorpha/Leporidae/Lepus/Lepus-californicus.html- Facts about the black-tailed jackrabbit. http://voices.yahoo.com/animal-facts-black-tailed-jackrabbit-4176433.html - Facts about the black-tailed jackrabbit doubledutchrabbitry.com Black Tailed Jack Rabbit -Picture of sitting black-tailed jackrabbit dinets.travel.ru Baby black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus), Coral Gables, Florida- -Picture of baby black-tailed jackrabbit Black-tailed Jackrabbit at Full Gallop www.flickr.com - Picture of running black-tailed jackrabbit. |