No endangered species list for cottontail

PORTLAND – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has chosen not to pursue protection for the New England cottontail under the Endangered Species Act, focusing its attention on other imperiled animals, officials said Tuesday.

A 12-month review by the federal agency found that there’s enough evidence to support pursuing protection for the cottontail, but the agency has chosen to put its resources elsewhere for the time being, said spokesman Dianna Weaver.

“It appears to us that they may need protection, but we don’t have the resources to pursue placing them on the endangered species list,” she said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced two years ago that it was going to conduct a survey of the New England cottontail, whose numbers – unlike other rabbits – are dwindling because of loss of habitat and predation from eastern New York to southern Maine.

In Maine, wildlife biologists estimate that there are fewer than 350 of the rabbits left, all in York and Cumberland counties.

The New England cottontail, not to be confused with the more abundant eastern cottontail, will remain a candidate for the listing process, and will be reviewed each year. There are now 279 candidates, Weaver said.

The announcement was published in Tuesday’s Federal Register in an annual appraisal of plants, insects and animals that may warrant protection.

The New England cottontail, one of seven new candidates for possible federal listing, is found in eastern New York and parts of all New England states except Vermont. The cottontail was last seen in Vermont in 1971.

Their biggest problem is a decline in their preferred habitat – thickets, brush and brambles – and remaining pockets have been fragmented by development. Another problem is predators that include fox, coyotes, fishers and raptors.

Marvin Moriarty, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the agency isn’t abandoning the cottontail. The agency will continue to work on conservation measures “before the species is given full federal protection,” he said.

“This species is an important part of New England’s natural heritage, and we all have a responsibility to preserve and protect it,” he said.

The petition seeking protection for the rabbit was brought by the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, Conservation Action Project, Endangered Small Animals Conservation Fund and Defenders of Wildlife in 2000.

Despite the federal decision, the state of Maine is pressing forward with plans to put the rabbit on its endangered species list.

Putting the rabbits on the state’s endangered species list would give them more protection by protecting essential habitat, said Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in Augusta.

Maine’s endangered species list, created by the Legislature in 1975, includes 49 animals, fish, reptiles, amphibians and insects at risk of extinction in the state. The last time the state’s list was updated was in 1997.