Sighting New England Cottontails
by Jeanne Siviski
photos by John Greene
If you see a brown rabbit during the winter in Maine, it’s a New England Cottontail. While snowshoe hares turn white in the winter, New England Cottontails stay brown. There are only about 250 to 300 left in the state, in pockets of coastal York and Cumberland counties. And they don’t usually venture far from cover. So, the chances of spotting one are slim.
The issue for this species, which has been listed as state endangered since 2007, is not the color of their fur, but rather, a loss of habitat. Rabbit patch terrain forms in nature as a result of weather – storms and floods – and wildfires that open up land to sunlight and the growth of dense thickets and early successional habitats. Since the 1960’s, about 86% of that habitat in New England has been lost as land has been developed and forests have matured. In Maine, cottontail habitat used to extend all the way to Belfast. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will determine if they should be listed as federally endangered or threatened by September 30 of this year.
New England Cottontails are not well suited for life out in the open. They rarely venture more than 16 feet from cover. Besides the fact that everything eats them - coyotes, bobcats, red fox, and re-tailed hawks, to name a few - New England Cottontail eyesight is adapted for a brush habitat. Research indicates that they might not detect the presence of an owl in the open until it is just 30 feet away, which would be too late. “I was out mowing a hayfield, John Greene, property manager for Ram Island Farm in Cape Elizabeth, recounts, “when a young cottontail took off in front of me. Seagulls immediately were after it.” Greene started running after the seagulls to chase them away, and actually caught up with the rabbit. Picking it up, he then released it back in its brushy habitat.
Ram Island Farm, a property held by the Sprague Corporation, has actively been managing land for New England Cottontails since 2008. They have created three 25-acre patches. Each year, Greene stated, they create brush piles, release apple trees engulfed by invasive vines and mow maturing shrubs to create habitat. “It’s a moving target, “he said, “always producing a de facto course of work.” Winter is often a tough time of year for rabbit survival, but the heavy snow covering dense thickets creates a warm, insular layer. “We know they’re out there, because of what we call ‘cocoa puffs,” or rabbit pellets, he said. Green has also found chewed stems on fallen apple branches (see photo, left) this winter. In addition, Greene installed a motion detecting camera.
The New England Cottontail Conservation Initiative is a collaboration of federal and state agencies, land owners and land trusts working on reviving the New England Cottontail population. In Maine, their goal is to achieve 5,000 acres of cottontail habitat by 2030. Private Landowners are an important part of creating this habitat, Kelly Boland, New England cottontail restoration coordinator for Maine for the USFWS, said. “It’s good to have a mosaic of forests, to have a lot of structural diversity,” Kelly said. Creating cottontail habitat also benefits a variety of other species, like American woodcock, wood thrush and ruffed grouse, she stated. Programs are in place to help landowners, including the Wildlife Incentive Program (WHIP). For information about doing a habitat project through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Working Lands for Wildlife Program, contact Andrew Johnson, New England Cottontail Specialist, at 207-883-0159 ext. 108. For more questions about cottontails, contact Kelly Boland at 207-646-9226 ext. 32.