It has distinctive large black-tipped grey ears that are chestnut brown and white on the inner surface, and the long, powerful hind legs characteristic of hares.

Its range includes British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario in Canada and Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois in the United States.

It is found in plains and prairie and in alpine meadows with scattered coniferous trees up to an elevation of about 3,000 m (10,000 ft) in Colorado.

The Edmonton Humane Society has issued public statements asking that bunnies not be brought into animal shelters.

[7] The white-tailed jackrabbit is nocturnal and lies up during the day in a form, a shallow depression in the ground hidden under vegetation, emerging at dusk to feed.

This jackrabbit is a solitary species and feeds on grasses and other green plants, including cultivated crops.

[4] It tends to be more selective in its feeding habits than the black-tailed jackrabbit, which puts the white-tailed at a disadvantage where their ranges overlap.

[6] It has good eyesight, excellent hearing, and sensitive whiskers, and is probably able to detect olfactory clues as to whether another jackrabbit is ready to breed.

[5] The breeding season is variable and depends upon latitude and environmental factors; it extends from February to July in different parts of the range.

They are perhaps most important prey for mid-sized carnivores such as the American badger (Taxidea taxus), the coyote (Canis latrans), and the bobcat (Lynx rufus) and small supplemental prey for larger ones such as the mountain lion (Puma concolor) and the gray wolf (Canis lupus).

Golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) and bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) are the only avian predators large enough to regularly take full-grown white-tailed jackrabbits, though ferruginous hawks (Buteo regalis) and great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) may occasionally take an adult, though these latter two species and other largish raptorial birds typically attack young.

[10][11][12][13] They attempt to evade detection by crouching in the vegetation where their cryptic colouration makes them difficult to observe.