Perhaps you grew up with the wonderful books of Thornton Burgess, including “Old Mother West Wind,” featuring Peter Rabbit, and “The Adventures of Peter Cottontail.” In the 1950s, superstar Gene Autry hit No. 3 on the country music chart with “Here Comes Peter Cottontail.” The question is, which cottontail?
I was raised in rabbit country in western New York, but those were the fecund eastern cottontails. Southern Maine and most of New England hosted just one native rabbit, the New England cottontail, scientific name Sylvilagus transitionalis. (Our snowshoe hare is not a rabbit). In the last half-century, changes in our environment and human impacts have resulted in a dramatic collapse in New England cottontail populations to the point where the handsome rabbit is now on Maine’s endangered species list. The New England cottontail is being considered for the federal endangered species list.
For several years I stayed abreast of developments with the New England cottontail, but the rabbit seemed to have disappeared from Harpswell. Then reader John Loyd contacted Anchor Editor J.W. Oliver to report a sighting in the southern reaches of Harpswell Neck. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife encourages people to report potential sightings for investigation. With fewer than 300 New England cottontails left in Maine, the rabbits need all the help they can get.
This cottontail is little more than 1 foot in length and reaches a maximum weight of just over 2 pounds, with females larger than males. Their fur is predominantly dark brown with gray highlights, but the puffy tail is mostly white. Those prominent ears, useful in hearing predators at a distance, and long legs, allowing speedy exits, are the rabbit’s only defenses. There are physical markings that may help distinguish the New England cottontail from the eastern cottontail — black-edged ears on the New England cottontail and a white spot on the forehead of the eastern cottontail — but the only definitive test to establish the species is done with DNA.
Breeding season for the New England cottontail in Maine runs from April to August, and the rabbits may raise three broods, up to eight kittens. Females may breed when less than 1 year old, a fortunate situation since fewer than 15% of rabbits survive their first year. The average life span is around three years. These herbivores feed on leaves, flowers, fruits, grasses and forbs. In winter their diet transitions to woody plants.
The New England cottontail is a habitat specialist, favoring patches of shrub wetlands and dense thickets of 25 acres or larger. Historically the New England cottontail thrived when much of New England had such cover around farms and active woodlots. Because of human development, the loss of farms, and changes in forestry practices, less than 3% of New England’s landscape is now suitable for the New England cottontail, and it exists in small, scattered pockets that inhibit movement and genetic mixing. The American woodcock, eastern towhee and indigo bunting have been similarly impacted by these habitat losses.
To compound the problem, New England hunting clubs in the early 1900s imported more than 200,000 eastern cottontails for sport. Those rabbits are more adaptable to varied habitats and more adept at avoiding increasing numbers of predators, among them house cats, coyotes, foxes, fishers and raptors. The advance of invasive plants like multiflora rose, honeysuckle bush and autumn olive have displaced native species used by the New England cottontail for food. Finally, growing white-tailed deer populations in southern Maine have wreaked havoc on forest understory.
To date, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has confirmed the New England cottontail as living in just six Maine communities: Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough, Wells, York, Kittery and Eliot. Using citizen scientists as its eyes on the ground, the department has received hundreds of reports of sightings in recent years. When credible reports are received, the department conducts surveys to search for currently unknown populations. Working with private landowners, land trusts and government agencies, the department mounts habitat improvement projects in areas with confirmed or suspected populations of New England cottontails, such as Cape Elizabeth’s Crescent Beach and Scarborough Marsh. The department also maintains a small captive breeding program that allows the release of New England cottontails into productive habitat.
With luck, John Loyd’s sighting will lead to confirmation that we have at least one New England cottontail in Harpswell. (Of course, it takes two to tango!) If you spot a rabbit in town, you should report it via the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s website, and I would enjoy hearing from you. Please use caution on our roads so we can avoid a roadkill disaster!
