New England Cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis) (NEC) are imperiled across their range because of land use changes, competition from Eastern Cottontail and spread of invasive plants. A conservation partnership between managers (state wildlife agencies of ME, NH, CT, RI, MA, and NY; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and the Natural Resources Conservation Service) has focused on restoration of early successional habitats on private and public lands. In parallel, there has been an iterative research collaboration (SUNY, UNH, URI) that has tested the assumptions inherent in the habitat management focus on NEC.

New England cottontail, Flickr

Recently a research group (Chaudrey et al. Environmental Stress in New England Cottontails (Sylvilagus transitionalis) Is Mitigated by High‐Quality Habitat) writing in Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology) differentiated levels of physiological stress between different habitat types, levels of Eastern Cottontail abundance and density of Japanese barberry (an invasive shrub species).

Researchers found that use of high‐density Japanese barberry by New England cottontails may ameliorate physiological stress where eastern cottontails are prevalent. Furthermore, the authors contend that “high‐quality patches, such as those with abundant food resources and cover, may be correlated with reduced physiological stress associated with competition and habitat degradation (Chaudrey et al.)”.