In the past week, Cape Cod has been hit with a series of snow storms.  Today I was finally able to get out and enjoy a morning walk in the forest before the next storm arrives this afternoon/evening.  Unfortunately, I didn’t see any tracks in the forest, but I did find evidence of a number of animals in my backyard upon my return, including the tracks pictured here.

The prints from the back feet (larger prints) were approximately 2 inches long, while the prints of the front feet (smaller prints) were approximately 1 1/4 inches long.  In all of these photos the animal is traveling from right to left, with the larger rear feet placed ahead of the staggered front feet. The size and the track pattern are both indicative of a cottontail rabbit.  Although rabbits have 5 toes on each foot, the 5th toe doesn’t show in the animal’s tracks. Additionally, rabbits have fine, sharp claws on each foot, which may or may not register in the tracks (they were not visible in this set).

Although Cape Cod has both the common Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) and the threatened New England Cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis), given the New England Cottontail’s unique habitat preferences and general avoidance of more human habited areas (like my backyard), it’s likely that these particular tracks were made by the Eastern Cottontail.

As I followed these tracks a bit, I came across a point where scat and urine were also present.  Eastern cottontail scat is small, round and pellet-like, less than 1/2 inch in diameter. Because cottontails are coprophagous, meaning that they eat their own droppings, they actually produce two types of pellets. Due to the design of the rabbit’s intestinal track, the animal is unable to fully absorb most of the available nutrients on the first pass through. Cottontails solve this problem through coprophagy, which increases protein digestion from 50% to 80%, and cellulose digestion from 14% to almost 40%.  The initial pellet is almost black, while the secondary pellet is tan to brown and lighter in weight with a straw-like appearance.  Given the color of the scat in the photo below, these are likely the initial pellets.