Jack Rabbit population

Killforfood

Killforfood

New member
I've noticed a general decline in the Jack Rabbit population in central Oregon. Four or five years ago they were thick as flies and now were doing good to kill 20 per day.
This is all normal as they seem to be on about a ten year cycle. About 15 years ago in the middle of the night racing back and forth across Dry Lake, I think my truck killed more than my rifle did /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
My question is if this is a regional thing or do they seem to cycle across the entire west together and why?
How about the rest of Oregon or you other western states. Are your rabbits in abit of a slump?
Maybe some of you Biologist types could explain how widespread these cycles are and the factors that contribute?
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Joel.
 
I know in 1982 I was living in SW Idaho, the numbers were quite high but all of the rabbits had subcutaneous Bot fly larva (or whatever kind of bug lays big fat grubs under the skin?). I moved to Alaska the next year so I don't know the outcome but I'll bet there was a big crash?
I was in Wyoming about 1985 and don’t recall seeing high numbers of Jack Rabbits.
We shot lots of prairie dogs though so maybe I was just in the wrong place.
Joel.
 
I have seen alot more jacks this year than the last 2 or 3 so I would have say that they are on an incline here right now.
 
Thirty years ago N D was thick with rabbits. I have only shot one rabbit in the last twenty years. Hoping they will come back. There is a few around.
 
Funny you should ask. We hunt alot here in West Texas, nearly one night every weekend after football season to summer. The numbers are down incredibly, very low. Have shut down going for last couple of months. Fields that we shot 200 in we have only seen 3! Very Odd!
 
Joel, Not only does the cycle change from state to state, it also chages within the state. Christmas Valley is way down from what it was just a few years ago, while the John Day area and the Steens seem to have plenty. I have been wanting to check out the Beatty Bute area and see what was going on there, but haven't had the time.
 
Grumpy,
Christmas Valley gets a lot of hunting pressure. Could that be the cause for the down turn in that area?
Beatty’s Butte is very remote and gets very little hunting pressure. The last time I hunted there we had to drive all the way to Denio Nevada for fuel.
I would have thought the trends would be state wide or bigger possibly due to two or more wet or dry years in a row?
The Coyote population seems to be fairly stable so I don’t know if that’s a contributing factor or not.

Based on these two web sites, it appears Washington is in a general down cycle.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/oldnews/1997/1117.html#anchor596920

http://wdfw.wa.gov/do/newreal/release.php?id=sep0399b

Joel.
 
I hunt in Central/West Texas and I've noticed a decline in jacks this year and last year also. The cottontail population seems to be about the same. I let a few jacks go while hunting this year due to the fact that I wasn't seeing as many. Good topic, it's cool to see a cyclical thing happening in different areas. I'm hunting in the San Angelo area so the guy from Midland (MarkA) mirrors what I've seen.
Trashcan
 
A group of us were up in northeastern WY this past summer and the jack population was way up. Being the good citizens that we are, we did our best to help reduce that population. However, as much shooting as we did, I am sorry to report that we failed.
 
When I drive in to the pasture where we keep our junk cars it looks like someone threw down a hand full of marbles there is so many that run. Dad sat in one place and scanned the area and counted over 50 that was visible also they make nice long range 44 mag open sight handgun targets.
 


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