What is a swamp rabbit

[catman529]

What's the difference between a regular rabbit and a swamp rabbit? I assume they are both cotton tails but different traits? I hear the term often but don't know what a swamp rabbit is.

 

[Chaneylake]

they mainly live in low lying areas and are quite a bit larger than the "hillbilly rabbit"

many times I have seen them swimming to higher ground when the Hatchie River is flooding.

common term in my area is "hillbilly" and "swampers"

 

[catman529]

so it's a bigger cottontail that lives in river bottoms and swamps? does it have to be swamp or do you find them in any river bottom area?

 

[Roost 1]

Catman if you look under my thread " first time out" you can see in my pic the second one from left is a swamp rabbit although not a big one you can tell its bigger than the others.

 

[catman529]

Cool I was wondering which one in the pic was the swamp rabbit. I have a good spot but I can't use a shotgun only air rifle (or bow) and I kick them up often but don't usually get a clear shot. Being river bottom/flood plain terrain that partially fills with water after a big storm, I guess they would be swamp rabbits.

 

[Mike Belt]

A swamper is an entirely different rabbit than a cottontail and they're 1 1/2-2 times bigger. They have shorter ears as well. I used to set rabbit gums(traps) and when I caught cottontails I could just run my arm down into the trap and pull them out. A swamper will bite so I couldn't do that with them. Although you can jump both around bottom areas, that's where to head for swamp rabbits. They love water and will readily swim across creeks, etc especially running from dogs. Many times just easing along watery areas I've caught them sitting in their beds right at the edge of the water and popped them in the head with a 22. You can really tell a difference when your dogs jump and run a rabbit you didn't see. A cottontail will generally run away in a circling motion before coming back by you. Many times when your dogs jump a swamper he'll run fast and straight away leading the dogs completely out of hearing before he circles back by you. They're fun to hunt and eat the same as a cottontail. If timber has been cut in a bottom area and there's water and treetops everywhere you have a swamp rabbit paradise.

 

[rukiddin]

I grew up rabbit hunting and had rabbit dogs in NC. I had never saw a true swamp rabbit until one time deer hunting in West TN. Those suckers are huge!!
We had "swamp rabbits" where we hunted but in reality they were actually marsh rabbits..aka bluebellies/bluetails. Dogs run'em the same and they tasted the same, but they ran more like a rat instead of the "hop" that cottontails had. Also there hide is alot tougher and they don't have the classic "cottontail". They have pointed little grey tails.

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

Rabbits on right are swamp rabbits. Not huge but big nonetheless. The hillbillies were big also. Killed in riverbottom duck hunting land on the TN river near Huntsville, AL.

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

A couple more in this picture. I've seen bigger but these are good examples of the difference. The two rabbits on the end were pretty big. The guy on right is 6'4" or there about.

 

[Mike Belt]

When I used to rabbit hunt alot and I targeted just swampers a hunting coat would get weighed down in the back and a long treck across muddy terrain would wear my back out. I started just slipping their heads under my belt around my waist to evenly distribute the weight instead. You could tell when you got the granddaddy swampers because their feet would just about drag on the ground.

 

[Bayou Buck]

In Louisiana we called them marsh rabbits. They can get big.