But can nature be recreated ? In 2010 , Roger Williams Park Zoo signed on to launch a pilot captive breeding program for the New England cottontail . Biologists trap the species in other states to keep a robust genetic mix , and send them to the zoo to be bred . So far the program , which paused amid the pandemic but was up and running again this spring , has produced and released 334 rabbits .
Weaned kits are tagged , micro-chipped and transferred for seasoning either to pens in New Hampshire or to a one-acre pen deep in the Ninigret Wildlife Refuge , where the Fish and Wildlife Service has transformed seventy-two acres of defunct runways into greenways dense with high-bush blueberry and autumn olive trees . The cottontails ’ termina is New Hampshire , Maine and Patience Island , a controlled environment with few predators . More recently , they have been released into the Great Swamp in South Kingstown .
“ We ’ ve established a population that is self-sustaining with an estimated 200 individuals — the largest single population of New England cottontails , anywhere in the region . That ’ s a major accomplishment ,” says DEM wildlife biologist Brian Tefft . “ The habitat is prime and it looks to me that they will be there for the long haul .”
In 2015 , the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the New England cottontail would be excluded from the list , because the population of 10,500 was already three-quarters of the way towards the goal of 13,500 cottontails in young forest landscapes by 2030 .
But the victory feels fragile . One day after that first litter of cottontails was born , two had already perished . Two months into their lives in the Great Swamp , fourteen disappeared . Tefft could only account for six — although he suspects that some slipped their radio collars .
“ There are variables we can ’ t control ,” he says . “ It ’ s never a guarantee .” �
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Ellen Liberman is an award-winning journalist who has commented on politics and reported on government affairs for more than two decades .
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l MAY 2021 35