Wild, captive, to wild: Working to help save New England’s only native rabbit
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| URI faculty and students are working to help save New England’s only native rabbit; their work follows efforts started at the University by faculty emeriti Thomas Husband in the Department of Natural Resources Science. (Rabbit Photos/Courtesy Roger Williams Park Zoo) |
The elusive native New England cottontail rabbit is the subject of lore and literature. But over the last century, their numbers declined precipitously in our region due to development, landscape change, and the introduction of an invasive rabbit.
Now researchers at the University of Rhode Island are using
a two-pronged approach to improve the New England cottontail’s prospects,
combining genetic and behavioral approaches at two very different sites: busy
Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence and the aptly named Patience Island, off
of Warwick.
Breeding programs coupled with translocation form an increasingly important method for conserving imperiled species; the approach has been used in the United States to help conserve pygmy and Riparian brush rabbits, but U.S. islands have rarely been used to produce animals for translocation.
T.J.
McGreevy, Jr. in URI’s Department of Natural Resources Science is
hoping that islands will
help preserve the New England cottontail here.
McGreevey recently finished his 14th season of field trapping the New England cottontail on Patience Island; now his state wildlife biologist collaborators will release the rabbits in New Hampshire and Maine this spring. Each winter they move approximately 30 rabbits off island to the mainland; last winter it was 41.
He’s working with URI colleague Justin Richard; they
hope their combined efforts will give the native rabbit a better future,
preserving its numbers here for centuries to come.
Richard is working with staff and students at Roger Williams Park Zoo while McGreevy has been coordinating efforts with state and federal wildlife biologists to establish multiple islands as breeding colonies to translocate rabbits to dwindling mainland sites. McGreevy is working with Richard to inform breeding programs at the Roger Williams Park and Queens (N.Y.) zoos to produce individuals that will ultimately be better able to survive and reproduce in the wild. These efforts will be critical to repopulate restored habitats for the species.
They are also sharing their work with the public this
spring.
“Our partnerships with the zoos are a great opportunity for us to share the story of New England cottontail conservation with local audiences,” says McGreevy.
Twenty-four undergraduate URI research assistants are
working on a project on
rabbit mate
preference (to maximize breeding success) with Roger Williams Park
Zoo. They’ll be at the zoo during April school vacation week, talking with
interested guests about the research URI is doing to support the breeding
program.
McGreevy and Richard’s work has
also been recognized with a grant from
the National Science Foundation,
in partnership with Allen Family Philanthropies, that supports conservation
collaboration; they are using this to further research into this native New
England rabbit. The funding allows state biologists, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service biologists, zoo personnel, and academics to coordinate their efforts to
conserve New England cottontails.
Genetic focus
Each summer, McGreevy hosts URI students in his lab studying
rabbit genetics and other wildlife studies. During the winter, he can be found
checking traps and cottontail numbers on Patience, a small island just off
Prudence Island. The off-the-grid island’s name is a fitting descriptor for
McGreevy’s work as he waits for the cottontail numbers to rise there. A summer
tourist destination it is not — no electricity, rampant poison ivy, lots of
ticks.
But for a cottontail rabbit, it’s perfect.
The island’s dense overgrowth of vines, brush, and
briar-filled thickets is the ideal environment for the New England cottontail
to find food and protection from predators.
McGreevy works with breeding programs in northern New
England as other nearby states have banded together to help save the imperiled
cottontail.
The New England cottontail thrived on abandoned farms that
transitioned to young forest in the 1960s, providing them with an ideal
habitat. Changes in the surrounding forest and the rise in development have
meant a loss of habitat for the rabbit and a partitioning of what has remained.
And then there’s its rabbit competition: over 200,000
eastern cottontails were initially brought to New England in the early 1900s.
First introduced in Connecticut and New York, the rabbit rapidly populated the
region. While originally introduced for hunters, the rabbit has also suffered
from the cachet of catching — for hunters, it’s more impressive to hold and
show off a deer instead of a rabbit — and so they spread.
“Eastern rabbits are adaptable; that’s part of the problem,”
says McGreevy.
The genetically diverse and disease resistant eastern
cottontail can flourish in all kinds of habitats. It’s the one you see hopping
across your front yard or when walking in the park. McGreevy has even seen the
rabbit hopping about downtown at WaterFire in Providence. It can tolerate being
out in open areas while the native New England cottontail prefers dense areas.
It can be hard to make the case for a disappearing species
when people feel like they are seeing them all over the place, McGreevy
comments.
McGreevy says we will not be able to eradicate the eastern
cottontail, but hopefully the native New England cottontail can also retain a
home here. He’s excited for new support for their project to help URI’s team
reach more citizens interested in preserving our New England cottontail and
other wildlife for generations to come.
“The public education and programs are needed,” he says.