Tim Senecal - email

NewEngland Cottontail

The New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis) is a species of cottontail rabbit represented by fragmented populations in areas of NewEngland. This species bears a close resemblance to the Eastern Cottontail, which has been introduced in much of the New England Cottontail home range. The eastern cottontail is now more common in it.

New England cottontails are virtually identical to eastern cottontails. The only way to tell them apart unequivocally is to view skull characteristics or by DNA analysis. Generally, New England cottontails have slightly shorter ears and smaller bodies. New England cottontails have a black spot between their ears 90% of the time (compared to 40% in eastern), they always lack a white spot on the forehead (eastern has the white spot 43% of the time), and they have a black line on the front edge of the ear 95% of the time (easterns 40%).

Populations have declined by 86% over the past 50 years. Because of this decrease in this species' numbers and habitat, the New England cottontail is currently a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Cottontail hunting has been restricted in some areas where the eastern and New England cottontail species coexist to protect the remaining New England cottontail population.

Rabbits require habitat patches of at least 12 acres to maintain a stable population. In New Hampshire, the number of suitable patches dropped from 20 to 8 in the early 2000s. The ideal habitat is 25 acres of continuous early successional habitat within a larger landscape that provides shrub wetlands and dense thickets. Federal funding has been used for habitat restoration work on state lands, including the planting of shrubs and other growth critical to the rabbit's habitat. Funding has also been made available to private landowners who are willing to create thicket-type brush habitat which doesn't have much economic value.