Recent News

Steps Taken to Protect Rare Rabbit in Rhode Island

October 16, 2015 — cfergus

By Cynthia Drummond of The Westerly Sun

PROVIDENCE — The New England cottontail, the region’s only native rabbit and the inspiration for the Thornton Burgess’s “The Adventures of Peter Cottontail,” has become so rare that there are just a few remnant populations in Rhode Island.

But a multiyear conservation plan involving the federal and several state governments, scientists, foresters, farmers and others is attempting to prevent the New England cottontail from disappearing altogether.

New England Cottontail Poised for Comeback in Maine

October 01, 2015 — cfergus

By Deborah McDermott, Seacoast Online

As agricultural land was abandoned in southern Maine in the early 20th century, forests grew where there were once fields and development started encroaching – leaving a shrinking habitat for the New England cottontail rabbit, a once ubiquitous species indigenous to the region.

Conservationists at Japan Conference Hear About NEC Use of Burrows

September 24, 2015 — cfergus

BIDDEFORD, Maine – Zach Olson, Ph.D., assistant professor of Animal Behavior in the Department of Psychology at the University of New England, was an invited speaker at the International Wildlife Management Congress, held in Sapporo, Japan, on July 27, 2015.

ESA Helps Write New Chapter for Peter Cottontail

September 22, 2015 — cfergus

By Wendi Weber, Northeast Regional Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, published September 18, 2015, in The Huffington Post

Federal Government Takes New England Cottontail Off List of Species Considered for Protection

September 13, 2015 — cfergus

The Associated Press, Published 9/11/15 5:08 PM

DOVER, New Hampshire — Public and private conservation efforts have helped the New England cottontail rebound to the point where it can be taken off the list of species under consideration for protection, the federal government said Friday.

CT Efforts to Protect True New England Native

August 17, 2015 — cfergus

(blog post by Carolyn Miller, Natural Resources Conservation Service)

Pull a rabbit out of a hat. If only it were that simple!

NH Project Bringing Back New England Cottontails

June 04, 2015 — cfergus

By Shawne K. Wickham
Manchester Union Leader, New Hampshire Sunday News

NEWINGTON - It's just after 8 a.m. and Tyler Mahard is hunting for rabbits.

Mahard, a wildlife technician for the state Fish and Game Department, is using telemetry equipment to search for rare New England cottontails inside a pen at the Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

5K Race Benefits New England Cottontails

May 19, 2015 — cfergus

Article appeared in Outdoor News Daily

CONCORD, N.H. – Participants in Stonyfield Farm’s 5K walk/run and free Earth Day Fair on Saturday, May 16, 2015, in Londonderry were helping bring a native rabbit back to New Hampshire’s landscape.

Biologist Interviewed by NPR

April 24, 2015 — cfergus

Ted Kendziora is a habitat biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s New England Field Office in Concord, New Hampshire. Through the Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, Ted visits private landowners across the range of the New England cottontail, evaluating habitat and suggesting ways that landowners can make their holdings more hospitable to New England’s native rabbit.

Bouncing Back: Maine Landowners Work to Save Cottontail Rabbits

April 06, 2015 — cfergus

By Aislinn Sarnacki, Bangor Daily News

Once abundant in farming communities, the New England cottontail rabbit has all but disappeared from Maine in the past few decades. Today, biologists estimate that 250 to 300 cottontails remain in the state, and they’re secluded to small pockets of shrublands south of Portland.

Pages