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News Release Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex Block Island NWR  John H U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service News Release Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex Block Island NWR John H. Chafee NWR at Pettaquamscutt Cove Ninigret NWR Sachuest Point NWR Trustom Pond NWR 50 Bend Road, Charlestown, RI 02813 401/364-9124 Fax: 401/364-0170 For Immediate Release February 27, 2018 For Further Information Contact: Nick Ernst (401) 364-9124 ext. 4406 Charlie Vandemoer (401) 364-9124 ext. 4401 Fish and Wildlife Service Proposes to Reintroduce New England Cottontails on Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge, seeks Public Comment Public Comments Accepted through March 25, 2018 The New England Cottontail is the only native rabbit in New England, and unlike the much more common eastern cottontail, is rare and of high conservation concern due to a dwindling population and fragmented habitats. Thanks to efforts by a wide variety of states, conservation organizations, universities and zoo’s much is being done to help insure the survival of this species. The Roger Williams Zoo for example has been rearing these animals, which are then placed in an “acclimation “ pen at Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge, and then the animals are relocated to other areas in the State to either bolster existing populations or to create new ones. In order to facilitate further conservation of this species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to reintroduce New England Cottontail rabbits onto the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge in order to establish a population. To help insure the success of the reintroduction effort, a small number of eastern cottontails could be live-trapped and moved to the barrier beach portion of the refuge. This will minimize competition between eastern cottontails and the New England Cottontail at the reintroduction site. The reintroduction effort is not anticipated to effect ongoing recreational activities, public use, or habitat management activities on the refuge. A detailed description of the proposed action is available on the Ninigret NWR website at https://www.fws.gov/refuge/ninigret. We would appreciate hearing your comments or concerns about the proposal. Comments will be accepted through March 25, 2018, and can be submitted to: NEC Relocation Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge 50 Bend Road, Charlestown, RI 02813 #### U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex Reintroduction of New England Cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis) on Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge February, 2018 I. Introduction The New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis; NEC) requires dense thicket habitat which can be found only in early successional habitats, regenerating forests, and coastal barrens. Since 1960, the range of the NEC declined by an estimated 86 percent, and is now restricted to five geographically isolated populations located in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York (Litvaitis et al. 2006). The primary cause of their decline is attributed to habitat loss and fragmentation due to human development and habitat succession (Litvaitis et al. 2008, Fuller and Tur 2012). Low genetic diversity threatens the remaining small populations making them more susceptible to extinction (Fenderson et al. 2011). Competition with eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus; EC), a species introduced to southern New England as a game species beginning in the 1930’s, is also believed to be a contributing factor to the decline of NEC (Fay and Chandler 1955, Litvaitis et al. 2006). The New England cottontail was designated as a candidate species under the Endangered Species Act from 2006 through September 2015. During this time, a Technical and Executive committee made up of representatives from each of the six states with New England cottontail, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), National Resources Conservation Service, and the Wildlife Management Institute formed to coordinate conservation efforts for the species across the range. In 2012, the Executive Committee approved the Conservation Strategy for New England Cottontail (Conservation Strategy) outlining a full complement of tasks designed to promote the recovery, restoration, and conservation of NEC and its’ associated habitat. Among other things, the Conservation Strategy established NEC Focus Areas in each state, where habitat management and creation, captive breeding, population augmentation, and reintroduction of New England cottontails would be implemented within its historic range. These and other ongoing conservation efforts by a wide range of deeply committed partners, including state and Federal agencies, towns, land trusts, companies, and private landowners, contributed to the Service’s decision in September 2015 that Federal protection for NEC under the Endangered Species Act is not warranted (USFWS 2015). In 2010, the NEC Technical Committee convened a Population Management Working Group consisting of conservationists from Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York and New Hampshire. In partnership with the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island and the University of Rhode Island, the group initiated a captive breeding program to augment wild populations of NEC, and reintroduce cottontail to formerly occupied areas throughout their historic range. Acclimation pens were established at Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge in Rhode Island, and Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge in New Hampshire, to help transition zoo raised young to life in the wild. In 2012, the group successfully established a breeding colony of NEC on Patience Island in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. A second captive breeding facility was established in 2015 at the Queen Zoo located in New York City. To date, New England cottontails from the captive breeding facilities, acclimation pens, and the Patience Island colony have been released at locations in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine. Purpose and Need for Action The range of the New England Cottontail has drastically declined since the 1960’s, and without immediate human intervention, consistent with activities outlined in the Conservation Strategy; the long-term persistence of remaining populations is at risk. State-wide surveys to locate NEC in Rhode Island indicate there has been a severe population decline within the state. Excluding the breeding colony on Patience Island, and a more recent release to the mainland, New England cottontails have not been detected in Rhode Island since 2014 (RIDEM unpublished data). Population augmentation and reintroduction is an urgent objective identified in the New England Cottontail Conservation Strategy (Fuller and Tur 2012), and is necessary to bolster the small population size and recover the species in Rhode Island. II. Management Objectives, Strategies, and Underlying Issues 1. Establish a self-sustaining population of New England cottontail at Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge to benefit recovery of the species in Rhode Island in accordance with Objective 405 of the New England cottontail Conservation Strategy. This will be accomplished through the release of captive reared individuals onto the Refuge. Issue: A sharp decline in the population of New England cottontail has been documented in Rhode Island. The species was detected at only four locations in southern Rhode Island between the years 2012 -2014 (RIDEM unpublished data). These detections represent a single individual at each site, and visits to these areas in subsequent years have failed to detect any NEC and confirm the presence of a healthy population. Areas of suitable habitat throughout the state have become increasingly disconnected due to habitat fragmentation, limiting NEC dispersal between habitat patches. Small, isolated populations can be particularly vulnerable to local extinctions if immigration of new individuals is lacking and reproduction rates are insufficient to overcome mortality (Brown and Litvaitis 1995). At present, there are only two known locations in the state with NEC - an island population established in Narragansett Bay in 2011, and a mainland site where NEC were recently reintroduced. Given the decline in abundance and isolation of its remaining populations, it is unlikely that the Rhode Island population of NEC will recover without continued management actions. Additional reintroductions of NEC to mainland sites throughout Rhode Island are necessary to bolster depressed populations and counter the destabilizing effects of habitat fragmentation, isolation, and small population size. 2. Increase survival and reproduction rates for New England cottontail by temporarily reducing competition with sympatric eastern cottontail at the release site. This will be accomplished by live trapping and translocating eastern cottontail from the release site prior to reintroducing New England cottontail in accordance with Objective 406 of the Conservation Strategy. Issue: The eastern cottontail is not native to New England. Thousands of eastern cottontails were introduced to the region in the 1900’s as a game species, brought in from the southwestern United States (Johnston 1972). The interaction between eastern cottontails and NEC in the wild is poorly understood, however several characteristics may give eastern cottontails a competitive advantage over NEC in places where their ranges now overlap. It has been suggested that a larger eye surface area allows the eastern cottontail to detect predators from a greater distance than NEC, enabling them to occupy a wider range of habitats including open meadows and lawns, compared
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