What? Jackrabbits in GEORGIA?!!!

[spudwrench]

After armored rats (armadillos) showed up in Tn. I am not surprised at anything.

which side of TN you on big guy ?

 

[charlie sherrill]

The first armadillo I saw I was 17. I had been in the woods a lot and never saw one until then. In my mid 20's coyotes started showing up here. It was rumored they were brought in to stock fox pens and escaped. They now breed with domestic dogs and are pretty much a feral nuisance. Wild and feral hogs are here but not the problem they are in Louisiana and Texas because thousands of them are slaughtered each deer season. I killed a big one and felt as good as if I had killed a ten point buck. Mixed with venison they make a darn good sausage. Alligators, which were almost nonexistant here a few decades ago have made a good comeback. They are tasty also so the problem, when it pops up, is quickly taken care of. We're seeing bald eagles here now. We don't eat them. Chipmunks have moved south and we're now seeing a few of them around. Too small to eat. Nutria are now moving northeast from the Louisiana swamps to this area. My neighbor has a lake he uses to water his cotton crop and some of them are in it although not as many since the gator moved in. Anybody got a good nutria recipe?

 

[Rogerdog]

Armadillos have migrated way past Tennessee. I live about an hour south of St. Louis and there was a dead one on the highway this weekend. I've been seeing dead ones pretty regularly for about seven years.

 

[NKJ nut]

which side of TN you on big guy ?

The east side of the west side.

 

[red14]

The east side of the west side.

The center?

 

[tom turner]

I think you guys are onto something with the cane cutter. I see them fairly regularly when I'm woodcock hunting down here. They are big.

I've also seen jack rabbits out west and the ears are noticeably taller.

Tom, have you ever seen a jack rabbit out west? If the ears on the critter you saw did not seem to be out of proportion to the rest of the animal, it was probably a cane cutter. Once you see a jack rabbit, there's no mistaking it.

Thanks for the replies everyone! I've been out of town and I'm just getting back to reply.

Yes, I've been out west on several occasions, and saw tons of jack rabbits out there, and these Georgia rabbits had much taller ears than the cottontails.

However . . . after reading about the swamp rabbits and cane cutters, and going to Google images to look at photos of them, this MUST be what I saw here. I'll try to get photos of the pair the next time I'm out visiting those folks north of Dublin!

I've lived and hunted in central Georgia for well over 20 years now but have never encountered rabbits like this. They must be pretty rare . . . or simply live in areas where not many folks go.

Thanks again for writing, Tom

 

[charlie sherrill]

They're not rare at all over here. At one time I owned 14 rabbit dogs and hunted several days a week during the season. Rabbits usually run in a circle when hunted with dogs. The little ones make a short circle and a short run, but sometimes the big ones will take the dogs out of hearing before they turn and come back. The area I live in is a lot hillier than most folks think that have never been here. Whenever we hunt rabbits there is usually high ground that produce the smaller cottontail/hillbilly and the lower wetter ground where the much larger cane cutter/swamp rabbits hang. On most rabbit hunts around here when the hunt is over you usually have several of each. I would guess maximun weight on a cottontail is probably 2-3 lbs. while a big cane cutter can go over 6 lbs. If you kill more than three of them you hang them in a tree and pick them up on the way back or take them to the truck if it is close enough. The weight in your hunting bag adds up real quick. I've eaten jackrabbits brought back here by a friend but I've never hunted them. I do know how to get them tender when cooking them. In the next year or so I might find someone who has too many of them and make a trip out west.

 

[NKJ nut]

The center?

No.
Imagine Tennessee divided into three sections. East, west and middle and imagine the Tn. river being what separates the three. I would be on the extreme eastern side of the western division.

 

[29aholic]

Rabbit population

I saw a program on the History Channel about the dust bowl. Jack rabbit populations grew out of control so much that people would just club them to death. I saw in the program where they just swarmed.

Is this Country ready for a Great Depression and a Dust Bowl now? It is coming, but I do not think we are half the men our forefathers were. They fought for survival. I think we would just curl up and die. I am including myself, not knocking anyone in general.

When we moved here to Central KS, my wife thought the bunnies running around in the yard were cute...right up until they started eating the garden. I cant say how many I shot (lost track) before I fenced the garden in. A while back I was in the town library, and they had a picture of a rabbit roundup in about 1930. I dont know about jacks but there's a **** load of cottontails this year.