MIRAGE NEWS • January 6, 2023
New England cottontails face many challenges from changes in landscape like development, fragmentation, and loss of habitat, to the encroachment of another lookalike species, the Eastern cottontail. Once distributed throughout the region, now New England cottontails seem to be barely hanging on. After a rigorous review process, in 2015 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided not to list the New England cottontail under the Endangered Species Act. Those working to conserve the New England cottontail are pushing on several different fronts, with some of the funding efforts directed toward zoos and breeding programs. “I would say also advocate for young forests and shrublands for New England cottontail and the many other species that rely on these habitats,” says Chadwick Rittenhouse, a wildlife biologist.