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Hunting Opportunities
Vermont has excellent hunting for a variety of small
game. The state's varied habitats are home to locally abundant populations
of cottontail rabbits, snowshoe hare, and gray squirrels.
Cottontail Rabbits are found primarily in the Southwestern Foothills
and Champlain Valley, including the Champlain Islands."Cottontails" favor the
varied habitat found in agricultural lowlands, and are commonly encountered
in brushy hedgerows, overgrown fields, briar thickets, and shrub-filled creek
bottoms. Kicking up cottontails on a crisp fall day is an excellent challenge,
whether hunters elect to chase them with a dog and shotgun or stalk them with
a .22 rifle.
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Snowshoe or Varying Hare are found statewide, but are most abundant
in areas with active forest management, particularly in the Green Mountains
and Northeast Kingdom. The greatest concentrations of "white rabbits" are found
in areas with dense, low-growing softwood stands, such as cedar swamps, spruce bogs,
and cut-over areas with thickets of young spruce and fir.
Snowshoes have seasonally white coats and large hind feet, adaptions that let them remain
active throughout the winter. They are a favorite of hunters with hounds because they
prefer to run a hard race rather than hole-up, as cottontails often do when
hard pressed.
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Gray Squirrels are Vermont's most over-looked small-game animal. "Bushytails"
can be found wherever mature stands of oak, hickory, and beech trees provide
them with abundant nuts, especially in the Southwestern Foothills, Champlain
Valley, and along the Connecticut River in the Eastern Foothills. Although lightly
hunted in Vermont, squirrels are a real challenge when stalked with a .22 rifle,
and their delicate meat compares favorably with rabbit.
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