White-tailed Jack Rabbit

     Lewis and Clark first saw white-tailed jack rabbits in what is now Lyman County. The white-tailed jack rabbit is a large hare. It prefers open areas where its keen hearing, good eyesight, and great speed make it easy to escape. They can move up to 40 miles per hour.

A picture of a White-tailed jack rabbit.
Photo courtesy of South Dakota Department of Tourism

     "I measured the leaps of one and found them twenty-one feet. They appear to run with more ease and to bound with greater agility than any animal I ever saw."—Lewis’s journal, September 14, 1804

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