New England cottontail rabbit. Rhode Island’s native rabbit is on the verge of being extirpated from the state after a survey of appropriate habitat and historical breeding sites. uri.eduMedia Contact: Todd McLeish, 401-874-7892
14 September 2011

KINGSTON, R.I. – Rhode Island’s native rabbit, the New England cottontail, is on the verge of being extirpated from the state after a survey of appropriate habitat and historical breeding sites by more than 100 University of Rhode Island students and staff from the R.I. Department of Environmental Management found evidence of just one animal. According to URI Professor Thomas Husband and DEM Wildlife Biologist Brian Tefft, who have been studying the rabbits for nearly 20 years, the New England cottontail has been supplanted in the region by the abundant eastern cottontail, of which more than 200,000 were introduced to New England in the early 1900s for hunters. In 2005, the last time biologists searched for the animal, Tefft found the cottontail in only a few locations. None were found at those sites during this year’s survey. “The animals have been declining throughout New England for a number of years, but nobody knows for certain why,” said Husband, adding that the species has nearly disappeared from New Hampshire as well, and very few populations remain in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine and New York. The researchers say that habitat loss and predation may be among the causes of the New England cottontail’s decline, though the eastern cottontail uses very similar early successional habitats and must deal with the same predators. “It’s also possible that subtle differences in their morphology could contribute to their decline,” Husband said. […] The New England cottontail is a high priority candidate for the federal endangered species list, and the U.S. Natural Resource Conservation Service is providing funding for habitat restoration projects in the region. DEM, through a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant, provided funding to help establish the Wildlife Conservation Genetics Lab at URI, where the rabbits are being identified, and to conduct other cottontail research projects. […]

URI, DEM researchers: New England cottontail on verge of disappearing from Rhode Island