Researchers from SUNY-ESF are using state parks to study rabbit habitats, and possible factors in the animal’s decreasing population.

Jonathan Cohen, a professor at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, along with graduate student Amanda Cheeseman and other researchers, have been leading a study on the declining populations of New England Cottontail rabbits.

They have recently connected with Fahnestock State Park and Wonder Lake State Park in Putnam County to also look at the effects of predator populations on the New England Cottontail population.

“I am really interested in conservation of animals and I particularly like the animals that I feel are unrepresented” Cheeseman said. “With the New England Cottontail, I feel like a lot of people, especially not from the New England region, have not even heard of the species.”

Cohen said he is interested in doing research that helps conservation agencies meet their goals. He said the goals of the project are to look at areas throughout the park that have cottontails and those that don’t, to study the predators and to look for places to restore young forest floors.

“The project got started because the rabbit itself is a candidate for being listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act,” Cohen said.

The term candidate means that the wildlife service suspected it should be on the list of endangered species but didn’t have the resources to make that determination, Cohen said.

Cheeseman and Cohen are looking at the survival of the New England Cottontail in different habitat types such as native habitats or invasive plant-dominated habitats as well as whether their survival is influenced by non-native Eastern Cottontails.

“I’m also looking at dispersal of New England Cottontails: how far are they capable of dispersing and do they disperse regularly or not?” Cheeseman said. “What’s causing mortalities of New England Cottontails: Is it primarily predators? Is hunting effecting their survival in any significant way? Road mortalities?”

The day-to-day operations of the project require a lot of tracking and measurement.

“In a typical day we have about 180 live wire-traps that are triggered by this little treadle that the rabbit walks over,” Cheeseman said.

Every morning the research team wakes up and checks the traps to see if they have a rabbit or two. They then conduct a series of measurements—weight, sex, ear/hind foot length, spots on fur—in order to help identify what species of Cottontail as well as obtaining a genetic sample from the ear tissue of the rabbit to confirm the infield identification results, Cheeseman said.

Cohen added that they use radio transmitters on the rabbits to track their dispersal and survival. This practice involves putting a radio collar on the rabbit and letting it go. Later, the researchers either get bearings on the individual by tracking the collars and using computer software to triangulate and find out where the animal was, or they physically locate the rabbit to record what type of habitat they’re sitting in.

The project has been going on for about two years and there are still many questions to be answered with this study as not much is known about the New England Cottontail population, Cheeseman said.

“It was probably in late 2011 that I began talking to the DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) about the project,” said Cohen. “The proposal was developed and presented to them in 2012. We actually started last fall; the graduate students enrolled in fall of 2013 and started conducting data in December of 2013.”

While this may seem like a long process to some, Cheeseman said that the research is moving along and she’s continuing to learn new information.

“I’d expect we’re going to find even more interesting things, discover more about the species and hopefully be able to clarify the impacts of native and invasive vegetation as well as the impacts of predator species, such as the Eastern Cottontails, on their survival and reproduction,” she said.

Published on September 9, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Anjali: acalwis@syr.edu