White-Tailed Jackrabbit

Photo:  FWS

One of the mammals identified by Lewis and Clark was the white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii).

First observed near today’s Oacoma, South Dakota, Captain Clark wrote, “Shield’s killed a Hare like the mountain hare of Europe, weighing 6 ½ pounds (although pore), his head narrow, its ears large i.e. 6 Inches long and 3 Inches Wide, one half of each White, the other and out part a lead gray, from the toe of the hind foot to toe of the fore foot is 2 feet 11 inches, the hith is 1 foot 1 Inch and ¾. his tail long and thick and white.”

The men would see and kill many white-tailed jackrabbits as they proceeded west, until they reached the Lemhi River valley. Captain Lewis often wrote detailed descriptions of the hare, including the length of its leaps – “commonly from 18 to 22 feet.”