The tracks of cottontails are composed of the long hind prints together in front of the two small, slightly staggered, front paw prints. Their diet consists of grasses, leaves, twigs, cactus, row crops, bark, and fruit. Encircling the garden with clover can help to protect crops of vegetables from raids by cottontails as clover is a favorite rabbit food. Scat is small pea sized, round, brown pellets. Mating occurs year round.
Gestation is one month long.
The female prepares a grass and fur-lined nest in a small depression on the open ground. Unlike hares, whose young are born precocial, rabbits remain in the nest until they grow fur, eyes open, and they are weaned at about one month of age. Young will lay very still and attempt to remain hidden while the adult will flush and run to create a diversion. The cottontail is an important game species as approximately 15,000 California hunting licenses are issued each year. Cottontail rabbits can be an agricultural pest like their relative the jackrabbit.