nearing endangerment, bunnies receive big bucks

It seems unbelievable that rabbits, a species known for its rapid reproduction, can be approaching endangered status, but the New England cottontail rabbit population is drastically declining. Unique to the northeastern United States, this species used to inhabit much of the land east of the Hudson River but today occupies a mere 24 percent of its historic range.

Stepping in to assist state-level conservation efforts, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation just awarded more than a quarter-million dollars to fund projects aimed at reviving the New England cottontail in New Hampshire and Maine. In 2006, the cottontail was formally added to the national list of candidate species under the Endangered Species Act, a status that meets the criteria for federal protection but is too far down on the list to receive it.

The NFWF sees the New England cottontail as a species whose falling numbers could be turned around with more money. Although the species remains scarcely present in other New England states, the number of organizations in Maine and New Hampshire already heading up protective efforts shows that “these two states are ready to engage in proactive steps,” says Timothy Male, director of wildlife and habitat conservation at NFWF. Several partners, such as the states’ fish and game departments, the University of New Hampshire’s cooperative extension program, Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Preserve are joining together to work toward recovering the New England Cottontail, a species that is also listed on both states’ endangered lists. With the grassroots support of this interstate collaborative community, the foundation plans to direct public conservation dollars into the project later down the road. Male calls the $290,000 dollars a down payment, and anticipates that over the next 10 years the foundation will provide another 12 installments of similarly sized grants.

Kate O’Brien, a biologist at the Rachel Carson wildlife refuge, estimates that there are about 300 New England cottontails remaining in Maine, mostly confined to localized clusters in southern coastal towns from Freeport to Kittery. In New Hampshire the population estimates under 100. The New Hampshire rabbits are predominantly found in patches near the Seacoast in Lee, Durham and Dover, along with some in the Merrimack Valley region between Concord and Nashua.

The species’ dwindling population is largely attributed to habitat loss and fragmentation due to human land development, especially suburban sprawl, says O’Brien. New England cottontails prefer early successional habitats such as overgrown fields and regenerating forests usually less than 25 years old, since older forests’ thick canopies shade out understory plants that rabbits need for food and shelter from predators. The natural disturbances that historically propelled forests through regenerative cycles, such as beetle outbreaks or fires, are now altered by human activity resulting in a landscape of houses and mature forests. Therefore, no matter how good the rabbits are at prolific breeding (about three litters of three to eight young annually), without the proper resources, the species cannot survive.

Male says restoring cottontail habitat will in turn benefit numerous other animals that also rely on this environment for survival. “The New England cottontail is an emblematic species for all of the animals suffering without this habitat,” he says.

Marvin Moriarty, northeast regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says the New England cottontail is one of more than 122 species of wildlife—including a number of declining song bird populations—that rely on early successional habitats in the northeast.

Over the next three years, the New England cottontail project will be two-fold. First, biologists must locate additional populations so that protection can be offered. Currently, the UNH cooperative extension is leading a multi-year project examining rabbit pellets to identify specific locations where the rabbits are living. Volunteers from the Seacoast and Merrimack Valley are eagerly encouraged to get involved by e-mailing Emma Carcagno, the wildlife program assistant, at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Second, the conservation team must manage land where the current populations of rabbits exist and find new protected land for the rabbits to grow into. O’Brien reports that the Wells Research Reserve and the Rachel Carson Refuge are working together to manage about 75 acres in the Seacoast where the species is already present. Another land management area that the project is looking into is in the Spurwink River area in Scarborough, Maine.

But developing protected lands is not enough. Many of the known populations do not live on conservation lands, but on privately owned lands, which is why much of the money awarded by NWNF will “pay for people to go on the ground, knocking on doors and recruiting landowners to allow restoration to occur on their land,” says Male.

For rabbit restoration to occur on a piece of land, the land must be monitored says O’Brien. Unlike a beach habitat, she explains, an early successional forest is not a self-sustaining landscape; it naturally evolves into a mature forest. Therefore, active land-management on the part of the landowner is needed if the rabbits’ habitat is to be preserved.

Anthony Tur, biological expert with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says that although challenges continue to mount for the species, “as long as you have a pair, you have something.”