Jackrabbit. Photo by Dutch Salmon.

All right, it's true that many people - perhaps most people - wouldn't call a healthy jackrabbit population a blessing. Here in the Southwest, jackrabbits are largely taken for granted; like ravens, we see them around a lot but don't really notice them much. Hardly anyone remarks, "Hey, I saw a jackrabbit today!"

When jackrabbits do get noticed, the reference is usually negative. They get into your garden and eat the crop. They girdle your fruit trees. They compete with livestock out on the range (it is said that seven jackrabbits will eat as much forage as a sheep). Or one leads your bird dog off on a merry and futile chase when the dog was supposed to be hunting quail.

Well anything can be troublesome if they get too numerous, including people. Still, I mark the jackrabbit down as a neat critter, uniquely talented and interesting, even if they are common as dog tracks.

First of all, despite the name, jackrabbits aren't rabbits at all, they're hares. The gestation period of a rabbit is about 30 days. Hares hold their young seven to ten days longer. And where rabbit young are born bald, blind, and helpless, a just-born hare is already in fur, with eyes open, and the little leveret can hop around. Rabbits, such as the cottontail, like cover; they live in burrows or brush piles and when pursued hard they look for cover or a hole to provide an escape. Hares spend their entire lives on top of the ground, hooding up in a "form" - a mere depression in the grass - when they're not out feeding or moving about. Flushed by a coyote, fox, greyhound, or eagle, a hare will attempt to outrun rather than hide from a predator.

By any or all of the above determinants, the jackrabbit is a hare. The most sensible explanation I've heard for the name "jackrabbit" is this one: the striking long ears of this hare caused the descriptive moniker, "jack-ass rabbit," later shortened to jackrabbit.

There are four species of jackrabbit in North America, three of which reside in New Mexico. The most common, and the one we see around here, is the blacktail jackrabbit. The black stripe down the top of the tail is descriptive. The coat is mostly grey flecked with black (excellent camouflage); the ears are 6-7 inches long and black tipped; and the species will average 5 to 8 lbs., more than twice the size of the cottontail rabbit.

On the northern plains, and extending south to Rio Arriba and Taos counties in New Mexico, is the whitetail jackrabbit. This hare has shorter ears than the blacktail (a hare's ears dissipate heat, so New Mexico jacks have longer ears than North Dakota jacks), and a white rather than a black tail. In winter, their pelage will turn white, like a snowshoe hare's. Whitetails average roughly six to ten lbs.

In extreme southern Hidalgo County is a rare hare - the whitesided jackrabbit. They look much like a blacktail jack, except for the flash of white fur on the sides and hips. While common further south in Mexico, the whitesided jack is scarce north of the border and is fu

The largest and most spectacular jack resides in south-central Arizona and further south in Sonora, Mexico. Like our Hidalgo County hare, the antelope jackrabbit has erectile hares that flash a white undercoat on the sides and hips when the critter is disturbed or in flight. But this guy is bigger - head and body some two feet long, ears up to nine inches long without any black on the tips, and a weight of eight to twelve pounds.

As Aesop knew when he matched a tortoise against a hare, you can't talk about hares without talking about speed. The hare the greyhound chases at the race track is artificial, but the one out in the field is real. By knowing something of greyhound speed one can infer the speed of a jackrabbit.

At the Tucson track, the greyhound "Whisk Action" covered 335 yards in 17 seconds flat, an average speed of 40.5 mph. That's from a standing start and around a curve. Greyhounds have been chronographed at an attained speed of 50 mph coming down the first straightaway. Take such hounds to the open field, flush a jackrabbit, and what happens?

Usually, the hound is able to overtake the hare one or more times, forcing the jack to change direction in order to escape, indicating the superior speed of the hound. More often than not, in the ensuing high-speed chase, the jack is able to elude the hounds with a myriad of high-speed moves until the hounds begin to tighten up (usually inside of a mile). At that point the hare is once more able to straighten out into a sprint, stringing the pack out and leaving them behind.

At times, however, one encounters some remarkable jackrabbits. I have seen both blacktail and whitetail jacks start up not ten yards in front of greyhounds of proven speed - fresh, healthy hounds on good running ground - and literally run away from them. These hares beat greyhounds at a straightaway sprint!

I have been running jackrabbits with greyhounds, salukis, and other sighthound breeds for 30 years. It is clear that the best jackrabbits are capable of an attained speed of at least 40 mph, and of maintaining that speed for a mile or more. That a hare is capable of outrunning a specially bred dog like the greyhound, a quadruped six to ten times its size, is surely one of the most remarkable feats in the realm of natural history.

In New Mexico, the jackrabbit is considered a "non-game” animal. This does not mean you can't hunt them. Quite the opposite, it means you can hunt them however and whenever - no closed season, no bag limit, and short of using poison, virtually without restriction. The jackrabbit is so prolific and so adaptable, it is virtually immune to hunting pressure.

Jackrabbits are great sport with rifle, handgun, and shotgun, as well as hunting dogs. I like to hunt them with the .22 WMR cartridge myself, either rifle or revolver. But we need to get beyond the notion that all these hares are good for is sighting in your gun. Jacks are a good game animal, regardless of the their "non-game" status, and hunters should not be killing them just to leave them in the field. Here's a jackrabbit recipe that works for me.

Jackrabbit Posole: The best meat is on the hind legs (the dark red meat along the back is great catfish bait) and the hind legs alone have more meat than a whole cottontail. Cut up meat into small pieces and soak overnight in the fridge in a bowl of water with a teaspoon of salt. To cook, saute in olive oil with onions. Add a couple of cans of hominy. Add red chili powder to taste. Season to taste with salt, pepper, garlic and oregano. Simmer at least two hours till meat is tender.

The jackrabbit is a remarkable critter, and in southwest New Mexico we are blessed with a multitude of these swift hares. I hope the next time you see one you'll say, "Hey, I saw a jackrabbit today!"