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Lagomorphs Our Only Native Cottontail Has Been Replaced by a Nearly Identical-Looking Alien, Seemingly Body-Snatched Before

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Lagomorphs Our Only Native Cottontail Has Been Replaced by a Nearly Identical-Looking Alien, Seemingly Body-Snatched Before Our only native cottontail has been replaced by a nearly identical-looking alien, seemingly body-snatched before our eyes in just the last 50 years. The range of our only native hare is likely to retreat northward beyond our borders in the next 50 years. What do we really know about our vanishing rabbits? by Peter G. Mirick boreal forest regions with cold winters and deep snow cover, could almost be a It’s hard not to love bunnies. Everybody poster child for the wildlife implications does: coyote, fox, fisher, mink, weasel, of climate change. Maybe it’s time we larger hawks and owls, big snakes, house gave our Bay State bunnies a little more cats, bobcats, domestic dogs, and people. attention. Not to mention any number of trema- todes, cestodes, nematodes, lice, fleas, Lagomorphs and ticks. Bunnies seem to have evolved Cottontails, which are rabbits, should as the ultimate prey: profusely abundant, not be confused with hares, which fast reproducing, easily dispatched (once are hares, and since people seem to you catch them), and possessing a satisfy- have a predilection to use the terms ing amount of nutritious meat. They are interchangeably, and since both can be the daily bread of a thousand predators, lumped under the vernacular bunny, we a broad band in the upper foundational might as well set the record straight. Rab- layer of temperate food chains across the bits and hares are lagomorphs, meaning globe. So popular are they that several they belong to the Order Lagomorpha, species have been transplanted inter- which also includes a diverse family of continentally, allowing some to become exceptionally cute little furballs called invasive species that have significantly pikas (none of which live in New England, impacted the ecosystems into which they unfortunately, but some of which, be- were introduced. cause they live in isolated alpine habitats Here in the Commonwealth we have or “sky islands” in the form of mountains only two native species, the New England from which they cannot depart alive, cottontail, Sylvilagus transitionalis, and may already be critically endangered the snowshoe hare, Lepus americanus. by climate change). Lagomorphs were Neither could be said to be thriving. The once classified as rodents despite their New England cottontail has exhibited an unique dentition (in particular, a set of extreme (> 75%) decline in numbers and rounded “peg teeth” directly behind range over just the past few decades, their upper incisors) and they were not largely replaced on the landscape by the taxonomically emancipated from the rats introduced eastern cottontail, Sylvilagus and mice until 1912. They may actually floridanus. Its continued survival appears be more closely related to the primates to be in imminent jeopardy and it is now a than they are to the rodents. candidate for federal endangered species Rabbits and hares share a number of listing. Meanwhile, the snowshoe hare, obvious characteristics including a high a northern mammal ideally adapted to reproductive rate and long, indepen- 23 Photo © by Bill Byrne Hares are bigger, longer-legged, and just plain tougher and lankier than cottontails. This Snowshoe Hare, in summer coat, also has coarser fur than a cottontail. dently controlled ears that offer superb and young. This is to be expected in a directional hearing and also function non-social species: they just don’t have as thermal radiators when their owners much need for auditory communication become overheated. They have a cleft that could alert predators to their pres- upper lip that aids them in food manipula- ence. Our lagomorphs do thump their feet tion. Their skeletal structure is evolved when alarmed, however, and thus may to handle the multiple g-force stresses of altruistically alert nearby individuals to fast acceleration and sudden changes in the approach of danger. direction when in full flight. Their hind legs are longer and much stronger than Refection their front legs, and although they will All three of our lagomorphs practice use a digitigrade walking gait, their stan- refection, a sort of “pseudorumination” dard locomotion is a plantigrade hop. that allows them to extract maximum They tend to be nocturnal, or at least benefit from their food without having crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk), to carry the four stomachs of a ruminant and most have excellent vision. Their around with them. They do this with the typically large eyes and narrow skull, aid of a special food storage/fermentation somewhat reminiscent of the woodcock’s vat of an organ called the cecum, located in design, allow them continual, near- between the small and large intestines. 360° monitoring of their surroundings; The short version goes like this: a very useful ability for animals that The rabbit consumes bark and greenery, could accurately be labeled “universal the stomach churns it up, and the small prey.” When injured or captured, all of intestine absorbs whatever nutrients are our lagomorphs are likely to produce present before squirting it all into the surprisingly loud squeals full of heart large intestine. The large intestine, which rending terror. Otherwise they rarely cannot absorb nutrients, separates the make any noise at all other than some high fiber, low nutrient material from the soft calls exchanged between mothers high nutrient, low fiber material passing 24 Photo © by Bill Byrne More delicate in size, bone structure, and ability to withstand cold and snow, the Eastern Cottontail has a finer, shorter coat than its larger snowshoe cousin. through it. The low nutrient material is than rabbits (although not necessarily packed into hard pellets and deposited as so when served at the table) and they waste, resulting in those familiar batches don’t dig or live in burrows. They are of “rabbit raisins” all outdoors people solitary in their habits and have never readily recognize. The high nutrient ma- been domesticated. They typically feed terial is sent back into the cecum where at night and spend their days quietly bacterial action breaks it down into sug- concealed in thick, overhanging cover or ars, amino acids, and other absorbable in the shadow of a rock ledge or boulder. nutrients. Following fermentation, and No carefully prepared, fur-lined nests for always timed to be deposited during the them. A mother hare (doe) simply picks animal’s daily resting period, the cecum a secluded spot, flattens a small area in squirts the wholesome mixture back the vegetation, and gives birth to preco- into the large intestine, which packs it cial young, called leverets, that enter the into special soft, greenish pellets, called world fully furred and with their eyes cecotropes, and sends them out to be im- open. Leverets can get around when just mediately reingested by the rabbit. The a day old, and if threatened, they rarely nutrients are then absorbed in the small go meekly into that red maw, but growl intestine on the second pass. Thus the and fight for their lives. The doe nurses animal acquires a number of precious them just once a day, during evening nutrients and crucial vitamins that would twilight, and they are fully weaned and otherwise have been lost as waste. It is on their own at 4-5 weeks of age. quite a feat of bioengineering. Rabbits are generally more delicate creatures than hares, rarely reaching In general, hares are larger than rab- weights of 5 pounds. (The biggest in bits, some species reaching weights of North America is the swamp rabbit, S. 10 pounds or more, with longer ears, aquaticus, a semi-aquatic rabbit that fa- longer legs and feet, larger nostrils (for mously attacked President Jimmy Carter rapid air cycling), and lankier bodies built in 1979.) Worldwide, most species live for speed. Hares are just plain tougher in comfortable burrows. The European 25 rabbits that were the main characters their eyes closed. It takes them more than in Richard Adams’ Watership Down two weeks to grow fur, open their eyes (and which were domesticated by the and develop sufficiently to leave the nest, Romans some 3,000 years ago) live in but like hares, they mature very quickly social groups in communal burrow sys- and are weaned and fully independent tems called warrens. Cottontails are an at 4-5 weeks of age. exception among the rabbits in that they follow the minimal burrowing habits and Snowshoe solitary lifestyle of the hares, although Although the European hare, the Eu- they will make occasional use of hollow ropean rabbit, and the black-tailed jack- logs, woodchuck holes, or natural cavi- rabbit were stocked in Massachusetts in ties under stumps and rocks, especially the last century, establishing resident during periods of cold, wet weather. populations in (respectively) Berkshire More often they spend their days in a County, the Boston Harbor Islands, and form, a cup-like “bed” concealed in long on Nantucket Island, these populations grass, weeds, or thick brush that fits the now appear to have failed. The snowshoe animal’s lower contours and insulates it hare was also stocked extensively in the from weather and prying eyes. Cottontail Commonwealth in the last century, most- does dig shallow hollows and line them ly in response to a major decline of the with layers of grass, fecal pellets, and population following the drastic changes their own fur to make a nest. Their young in habitat and land use that occurred in are altricial, born nearly naked and with Photos © by Bill Byrne Typical of all New England lagomorph behavior, these Snowshoe Hares feed in close proximity to cover where they can instantly retreat if a predator (such as the Red Fox, inset) is detected. The ability to perceive the presence of a predator earlier than the competition is believed to be one of the Eastern Cottontail’s superior survival skills; one of the reasons it has been able to replace the New England Cottontail in all but the most predator-impenetrable habitats.
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