Small Game

How to tell them apart

One identification cue for each species, from its profile. Open a profile for the full description - and check your state's regulations, which set separate limits for some look-alike species.

Eastern Cottontail

Cottontails are easily distinguished from the larger, longer-legged jackrabbits of the West and, in the North, from snowshoe hares, which turn white in winter and have much larger feet.

Gray Squirrel

Both are legal game in most states; the smaller red squirrel and flying squirrels are different, generally non-game animals.

Snowshoe Hare

Compared with the cottontail, the snowshoe hare is larger, longer-legged, and uniquely tied to deep northern forest.

Fox Squirrel

The fox squirrel is the largest of North America's tree squirrels, typically weighing 1.5 to 2.5 pounds and measuring around 20 to 28 inches including the long, bushy tail.

Black-tailed Jackrabbit

Its size and black-topped tail separate it clearly from smaller cottontails.

Woodchuck

Its low, thick build distinguishes it from the ground squirrels and prairie dogs of the West.

White-tailed Jackrabbit

It is bigger than a cottontail and told from the black-tailed jackrabbit by its white tail and northern range.

Swamp Rabbit

Swamp rabbits are large, dark, rusty-brown cottontails with a small buff eye-ring and coarse fur.

Desert Cottontail

Desert cottontails are pale grayish-brown with large ears, long legs and the classic white cottontail.

Antelope Jackrabbit

Antelope jacks are big hares with enormous ears, pale gray-brown backs, and bright white sides and rump that flash as they run, giving the impression of a bounding antelope.

Red Squirrel

Red squirrels are small and rusty-red to reddish-brown above with a white belly, a white eye-ring, and a bushy tail edged in black.

Marsh Rabbit

Marsh rabbits are small and dark reddish-brown with short ears, small feet, and a grayish rather than white underside to the tail, which sets them apart from other cottontails.

Nutria

Key features are large bright orange-yellow front incisors, a round nearly hairless rat-like tail (unlike a beaver's flat paddle or muskrat's flattened tail), and prominent white whiskers.

Nine-Banded Armadillo

A cat-sized animal in a leathery, bony shell, with a jointed midsection (usually eight to eleven movable bands despite the "nine" name), a long tapering armored tail, and a pointed, piglike snout.

Common Porcupine

Stocky and rounded, with a small head, short legs, and a thick, muscular tail. The body is dark brown to blackish, overlaid with an estimated 30,000 barbed quills tipped white or yellow, concentrated over the back, rump, and tail.

Rock Squirrel

Adults run roughly 17 to 21 inches long, nearly half of that a long, bushy tail that gives them an almost tree-squirrel look uncommon among ground squirrels.

Yellow-Bellied Marmot

Stocky and roughly house-cat-sized, adults commonly run about 5-11 lbs, heaviest just before hibernation.