Recent News

By Edward Ricciuti

Connecticut DEEP and WMI biologist Lisa Wahle is quoted extensively in an article in the Spring 2019 Upland Almanac. The article, by writer Edward Ricciuti, is reprinted here by permission. (Click on the attachment below to read the piece.) Ricciuti clearly and convincingly makes the point that creating habitat for New England cottontails has the potential to help ruffed grouse in all six states where NEC live – and where local grouse populations have plummeted over the last 50 years as young forest habitat has dwindled.

By Todd McLeish for ecoRI

More rare New England cottontails were raised at Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence and the Queens Zoo in New York City and released into the wild than ever before, according to conservation officials. The success is a positive sign for populations of the region’s only native rabbit, which had declined precipitously in recent decades because of habitat loss, hunting, and competition with the introduced eastern cottontail.

By Meagan Hayes, for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

Nests of New England cottontails, and the baby rabbits themselves, don't give off much scent. But scientists have found that dogs, with their fantastic scenting abilities, can detect them.

They’re not chasing birds or deer. They’re chasing scent.

The aroma of animal scat, in fact.