I photographed this Cottontail Rabbit reaching for a plant to eat near the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge office in Oklahoma. This was back on May 15th before the flood. The office area flooded, and the employees moved to a space at the Vian, Oklahoma School. Most of the Refuge was completely under water.
I read on Facebook that most of the refuge is back open and that they have worked hard on cleanup.
Here is a link to some flood damage posted on Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge Facebook page: Damage Report
How I Got The Shot
I was leaving the refuge when I spotted this Cottontail near the restroom. I was able to park and photograph this Rabbit from my pickup.
I had my Fujifilm X-T3 camera resting on a bean bag draped over the open window of my pickup with a Canon EF 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II lens attached with a Fringer EF-FX Pro. I was shooting in aperture priority mode (AV) with a shutter speed of 1/320 of a second at f5.6 and the ISO at 800. I also had a -0.3 exposure value. White Balance was set on auto.
Cottontail Rabbit Facts
- Cottontails are rarely found out on windy days away from their burrows. The wind interferes with their hearing abilities, and their primary defense mechanism is to hear an oncoming predator.
- Usually a Cottontail Rabbit moves around in hops, but if scared, it either freezes in place or runs as fast as 18 miles an hour to try to escape predators.
- Cottontails have eyes protruding a little from their heads, giving them a vision of nearly 360 degrees. They have a blind spot right in front of them, which is about 10 degrees wide.
- When they smell, Rabbits twitch their noses. They have 100 million scent receptors, and twitching helps to expose them all.
- Rabbits can sleep with their eyes open.
- The Cottontail can leap from 10 to 15 feet.