Common name: New England Cottontail
Scientific name: Sylvilagus transitionalis (Bangs, 1895)

Class:
Mammalia (Mammals)
Order:
Lagomorpha (Pikas, Rabbits, and Hares)
Family:
Leporidae (Rabbits and Hares)
Synonyms:
Other common names:

Habitat type(s):
Habitat description(s)
Palustrine:
FORESTED WETLAND
Terrestrial:
Shrubland/chaparral, Old field, Forest - Hardwood, Forest - Conifer, Forest - Mixed, Woodland - Hardwood, Woodland - Conifer, Woodland - Mixed

Ecological systems and subsytems (about):
TERRESTRIAL - FORESTED UPLANDS:
Beech-maple mesic forest (guide)
A hardwood forest with sugar maple and American beech codominant. This is a broadly defined community type with several variants. These forests occur on moist, well-drained, usually acid soils. Common associates are yellow birch, white ash, hop hornbeam, and red maple.
TERRESTRIAL - FORESTED UPLANDS:
Hemlock-northern hardwood forest (guide)
A mixed forest that typically occurs on middle to lower slopes of ravines, on cool, mid-elevation slopes, and on moist, well-drained sites at the margins of swamps. Eastern hemlock is present and is often the most abundant tree in the forest.
PALUSTRINE - FORESTED MINERAL SOIL WETLANDS:
Red maple-hardwood swamp* (guide)
A hardwood swamp that occurs in poorly drained depressions, usually on inorganic soils. Red maple is usually the most abundant canopy tree, but it can also be codominant with white, green, or black ash; white or slippery elm; yellow birch; and swamp white oak.
PALUSTRINE - OPEN PEATLANDS:
Sedge meadow (guide)
A wet meadow community that has organic soils (muck or fibrous peat). Soils are permanently saturated and seasonally flooded. The dominant herbs must be members of the sedge family, typically of the genus Carex.
PALUSTRINE - OPEN MINERAL SOIL WETLANDS:
Shallow emergent marsh* (guide)
A marsh meadow community that occurs on soils that are permanently saturated and seasonally flooded. This marsh is better drained than a deep emergent marsh; water depths may range from 6 in to 3.3 ft (15 cm to 1 m) during flood stages, but the water level usually drops by mid to late summer and the soil is exposed during an average year.
PALUSTRINE - OPEN MINERAL SOIL WETLANDS:
Shrub swamp* (guide)
An inland wetland dominated by tall shrubs that occurs along the shore of a lake or river, in a wet depression or valley not associated with lakes, or as a transition zone between a marsh, fen, or bog and a swamp or upland community. Shrub swamps are very common and quite variable.
PALUSTRINE - FORESTED MINERAL SOIL WETLANDS:
Spruce-fir swamp* (guide)
A conifer swamp that typically occurs in a drainage basin but also can occur at the edge of a lake or pond or along gentle slopes of islands. These swamps are usually dense, with a fairly closed canopy (80 to 90% cover). The dominant tree is usually red spruce. Codominant trees include balsam fir and red maple. In the Catskills, balsam fir may be absent, and in the Adirondacks, black spruce or white spruce may replace red spruce as a dominant tree.
TERRESTRIAL - FORESTED UPLANDS:
Spruce flats* (guide)
A mixed forest that occurs on moist sites along the borders of swamps and in low flats along lakes and streams in the Adirondacks. Soils are strongly podzolized, loamy to sandy, and seasonally moist, but not saturated and not peaty. Typically, the dominant trees are red spruce and red maple.
TERRESTRIAL - OPEN UPLANDS:
Successional old field
A meadow dominated by forbs and grasses that occurs on sites that have been cleared and plowed (for farming or development), and then abandoned or only occasionally mowed.
TERRESTRIAL - OPEN UPLANDS:
Successional shrubland
A shrubland that occurs on sites that have been cleared (for farming, logging, development, etc.) or otherwise disturbed. This community has at least 50% cover of shrubs.

* probable association but not confirmed.


Conservation:
Global conservation status rank:
G3
Vulnerable globally - At moderate risk of extinction due to rarity or other factors; typically 80 or fewer populations or locations in the world, few individuals, restricted range, few remaining acres (or miles of stream), and/or recent and widespread declines.
State conservation status rank:
S1S2
Critically Imperiled or Imperiled in New York - Especially or very vulnerable to disappearing from New York due to rarity or other factors; typically 20 or fewer populations or locations in New York, very few individuals, very restricted range, few remaining acres (or miles of stream), and/or steep declines. More information is needed to assign either S1 or S2.
Federal protection:
Not Listed
State protection:
Special Concern
Listed as Special Concern by New York State: at risk of becoming Threatened; not listed as Endangered or Threatened, but concern exists for its continued welfare in New York; NYS DEC may promulgate regulations as to the taking, importation, transportation, or possession as it deems necessary.
SGCN:
NYNHP track status:
Y: Track all extant and selected historical EOs

More information:
Conservation guide:
https://guides.nynhp.org/new-england-cottontail/
NatureServe explorer link:
https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.791204/Sylvilagus_transitionalis/