Although it sounds suspiciously like a fictitious character, the swamp rabbit is alive, and apparently, doing quite well in Southern Illinois.

While critters such as the swamp rabbit's cousin, the eastern cottontail, and the bobwhite quail are hurting because of habitat destruction, the swamp rabbit is holding its own thanks in part to wetland restoration in the region.

"They are kind of a unique animal," said John Cole, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' agricultural and grassland wildlife manager. "They have real specific habitat requirements. They're common in openings in bottomland hardwood forests."

Southern Illinois is on the northern edge of the swamp rabbits range. They are primarily found in the Cache River basin and along feeder streams near the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Cole said they have been found as far north as St. Louis and Lawrenceville.

Although not as common as they once were, the swamp rabbit seems to be holding its own. Habitat destruction was the primary reason for the decline.

"In the late 50s and early 60s they started clearing a lot of bottomland hardwoods and putting it in farmland," Cole said. "Rabbits are not a very mobile species. They kind of survived in little patches around Southern Illinois. They're a fairly common animal in Kentucky and Tennessee.

"They just evolved to inhabit wetland areas. They're adept at swimming. Their dietary habits are fairly similar to cottontails. One of the things they use for food that is kind of restricted to these areas is great cane. It's in the bamboo family. They feed on a wide array of plant material."

Although they closely resemble their cousin, the eastern cottontail, differences are marked.

"They're larger and darker in color," said Clay Nielsen, a wildlife ecologist at the Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory at Southern Illinois University. "If you had the two of them sitting next to each other, which would be highly unlikely, you'd be able to tell the difference in size and color."

The Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory is in the second year of a four-year study of swamp rabbits. The purpose of the study is to determine whether the creature is utilizing wetlands recently restored through federal programs.

"It seems from our research that some of these Wetland Reserve Program sites that have reverted back to their original settings appear to be good," Nielsen said. "It seems as though even at fairly early stages these sites could be useful for swamp rabbits."

The Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory is trying to get a handle on populations in newly restored areas. Getting an accurate count has required a little imagination and trickery.

One of the quirks of the swamp rabbit is that it tends to leave its droppings on top of downed trees � something lacking in newly restored areas. Researchers built artificial hollow logs and placed them in emerging wetland habitat.

"No one really knows for sure why they do that," Nielsen said. "Those logs are mossy and hold scent pretty well. They're territorial animal. It's a good place to leave your scent. It does give them a vantage point and also a good place to scent up those logs."

Some live-trapping is being done. Tissue samples are taken from captured animals and they are marked with ear tags.

"We're still kind of looking through the data, but I'm not terribly surprised they are using these new habitat areas," Nielsen said. ""We're trying to see what habitat features within these new areas are useful."

Although never common throughout the region, Cole said the swamp rabbit has never been considered threatened or endangered.

"Its something the information we have suggests they probably aren't in need of protection at the present time," Cole said. "They're still hunted. Some of the local families have kind of a tradition of hunting them. A lot of them are kind of secretive about if they know areas that have good populations."

les.winkeler@thesouthern.com

(618) 351-5088