Kansas mulled lowering rabbit hunting possession limit, chose not to
It is really tricky to be a rabbit.
Four out of 5 cottontail rabbits residing wild in Kansas die within a 12 months, mentioned Jeff Prendergast, small sport expert for the Kansas Division of Wildlife and Parks.
Nonetheless that species survives because it multiples so speedily, Prendergast instructed the Kansas Wildlife and Parks Commission as it talked about state rabbit hunting guidelines on March 31.
“All the jokes are real,” he said. “They are incredibly prolific.”
‘Just about anything eats rabbits’
When KDWP officials converse about rabbits, they are chatting about cottontails, Prendergast instructed The Capital-Journal.
Though jackrabbits live in Kansas, jackrabbits are technically hares, which are larger than rabbits, he reported.
The phrase “rabbit” refers to the genus Sylvilagus, which consists of 17 species, a few of which exist in Kansas, Prendergast said.
He reported the 3 Kansas species are as follows:
• The desert cottontail, which lives only in the western third of the state, is scaled-down than most cottontails and has extended ears to aid disperse warmth.
• The swamp rabbit, which is darker and more substantial than other cottontails and has only been identified in strip pits in the state’s southeast corner. Kansas has not had a documented sighting of a swamp rabbit in several a long time.
• The eastern cottontail, Kansas’ most popular rabbit, which is “possibly one that you’ve got witnessed in your yards.”
Eastern cottontails are located statewide, Prendergast stated.
They are an crucial prey species, as “just about anything eats rabbits,” he stated.
Japanese cottontails are also prone to dying from numerous ailments and such environmental functions as snowstorms and droughts, Prendergast said.
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The place do wild rabbits dwell?
Rabbits have to have 3 primary habitat components in which to stay, Prendergast stated.
• Nesting include, primarily produced up of fallow-type, weedy fields and indigenous grasslands.
• Protective include to protect them from predators. That address can involve briars, brush piles and brushy fence strains.
• Food, these as fresh grass or in the winter season bark off of trees.
Rabbits have a superior chance to endure when all these components are available in a place of two to four acres, however they can journey up to 15 acres if they have to, Prendergast stated.
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How speedy can rabbits here multiply?
An unique feminine cottontail rabbit can make 35 to 40 offspring in a yr, Prendergast mentioned.
On regular, he explained, a cottontail woman here gives delivery to six to eight litters for every year, consisting of 4 to six infants for each litter.
The breeding year for japanese cottontails in Kansas lasts about seven months, from late February by September, Prendergast reported.
Individuals rabbits have a 28-day interval between conception and delivery and are capable of conceiving again as shortly as their youthful are born, he explained.
“They get to sexually maturity inside of 80 days, which means mom’s very first litter of the yr are in fact developing youthful at the finish of the year,” Prendergast said.
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How are rabbit populations doing in Kansas?
KDWP is observing a normal slight decrease in population of rabbits, in accordance to success of an yearly spring study done by the state’s mail carriers, Prendergast explained.
He said Kansas rabbit populations considering that the 1960s:
• Have been stable in the central section of the point out.
• Have greater marginally in southwest Kansas, due to the introduction of indigenous grasses and an growth of trees, shrubs and woody protecting go over.
• Have found a decline in eastern Kansas, which has historically viewed the most rabbits, for the reason that of the lessened availability of tiny farms and protecting include.
“A ton of it quantities to landscape modifications and modifications in how we use the land,” he stated.
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What are the laws on hunting rabbits?
Cottontail rabbits and jackrabbits may be hunted calendar year-spherical in Kansas, with the day by day bag limit being 10 and the possession limit getting 40.
“This is identical to what we see throughout the west, and Kansas tends to be on the jap part of that line,” Prendergast said. “States to the east are a lot more conservative.”
Kansas very last calendar year elevated the possession restrict for rabbits to 40 from 30 in an exertion to manage consistency with its policies pertaining to pheasant and quail, which have equivalent habitat prerequisites, Prendergast claimed.
He acknowledged that prompted some constituents to dilemma why KDWP appeared to be trying to boost the quantity of rabbits harvested when some Kansans assumed the state was previously allowing much too numerous to be harvested.
“When that wasn’t the intent of the regulation — it was far more for consistency — we did not anticipate it to effect our harvest,” he claimed.
The condition involves rabbit hunters ages 16 to 74 to possess a valid Kansas searching license, except they’re searching on their personal land. Far more facts about obtaining such licenses can be observed on the KDWP website.
Most cottontail hunters use a .22-caliber rifle, although tiny-gauge shotguns are also employed, according to an posting on the KDWP website.
Rabbit hunting is “a good way to set tasty wild meat on the desk,” that article reported.
An common of about 15,000 people today for each 12 months hunt rabbits in Kansas, Prendergast informed the wildlife and parks commission.
About 10{aa306df364483ed8c06b6842f2b7c3ab56b70d0f5156cbd2df60de6b4288a84f} of all those are living out of condition, with out-of-point out hunters killing about 10{aa306df364483ed8c06b6842f2b7c3ab56b70d0f5156cbd2df60de6b4288a84f} of the rabbits harvested, he said.
Wildlife and parks commissioners on March 31 discussed potentially lowering rabbit harvest limits but determined, without taking a vote, to only keep monitoring the problem.
“Like fish, reducing the restrict is not likely to make any variation on the resource as a entire,” claimed Commission Chairman Gerald Lauber. “I see practically nothing that screams out that we have to have to do something other than go on to watch.”
Tim Hrenchir can be reached at [email protected] or 785-213-5934.
