Easter’s on its way, but you’re probably not going to spot Peter Cottontail hopping down the bunny trail anytime soon. That is, assuming he is a New England cottontail, a species unique to our region whose population has plummeted over the last four decades. The creation of author Thornton Burgess, Peter was likely inspired by the cute, brown New England cottontails that bounded around Burgess’s Cape Cod home. The character first appeared in 1910 in the book Old Mother West Wind, long before life became challenging for the New England cottontail. 

The problem the rabbits face today is two-fold, says James Cardoza, a Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife biologist. First, the New England cottontail competes for its scarce habitat with the Eastern cottontail, a species introduced here between the 1920s and 1950s to beef up game numbers. Unfortunately, the Eastern, which closely resembles its slightly smaller cousin, thrives in a wider variety of habitat, and according to the Environmental Defense Fund, “tends to produce more young and is better at detecting and escaping from predators.” 

Then there’s the fact that the New England cottontail’s preferred habitat is the “early successional” forest. Such overgrown farmland, brushy thickets, and areas damaged by flood or fire provide an understory, meaning food and shelter from predators for the rabbits. Once forests mature, their canopies prevent the growth of vital low-lying plants. Human intervention has prevented the natural events that once created this kind of habitat, and newly developed houses often interrupt the thickets that remain. White-tailed deer and non-native plants are also taking over the early successional forest, leaving the rabbits with diminished food and protection. 

Once the New England cottontail inhabited much of the land east of the Hudson River in New York; the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts; and southern Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Today, the range of Sylvilagus transitionalis is a scant 24 percent of that. According to the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, the Maine population has dipped to just 300, with only about 100 remaining in New Hampshire. Already protected in both of these states, the New England cottontail has been on the list of candidates for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act since 2006. 

Enter the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and a plan that could eventually increase these numbers and take the species off the list. In January of this year, NFWF provided $250,000 to fund cooperative projects among a variety of agencies and organizations involved with restoring the New England cottontail population. (The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department has provided an additional $40,000 grant for restoration work in that state, which will be overseen by the Wildlife Management Institute.) The money will be used to conduct surveys identifying where the rabbits live and fund education of private landowners in focus and demonstration areas. According to Anthony Tur, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biological expert, it does not take long to create the needed type of forest undergrowth and start welcoming back the rabbits, and the cooperation of landowners is pivotal. It’s still too soon to know, but the question remains: If we build it, will they come?