Home Range and Movements of the Eastern Cottontail in Kansas

This 1959 ecological study represents a quiet landmark in American wildlife science. Donald Janes spent years on the 90-acre University of Kansas Natural History Reservation, live-trapping and observing Eastern Cottontail rabbits to answer a deceptively simple question: where do these ubiquitous creatures go, and why? His findings revealed a species shaped as much by territory as by instinct, with home ranges spanning from under half an acre to nearly thirteen depending on age, sex, and season. The rabbits emerged as creatures of profound attachment to their birth sites, their movements driven by the competing imperatives of foraging, avoiding predators, and reproducing. Janes' work established foundational methods for estimating wildlife populations that remain influential in ecology today, while painting an intimate portrait of a single species navigating the pressures of mid-century Kansas farmland. For readers curious about the empirical roots of wildlife biology or the specific natural history of the Central Plains, this study offers both methodological rigor and a window into a vanished ecological moment.