It’s nesting season for Granite State rabbits, and that means the time is right to submit your rabbit sightings to NH Rabbit Reports.
Spring is a good time to look for rabbits. As the snow melts and plants begin greening, rabbits are active. Female rabbits nest in the spring, and that means you’re more likely to see rabbits in your backyard, around your neighborhood, or during an outdoor adventure.
Submitting rabbit sightings to NH Rabbit Reports is a great way for homeowners, natural resource professionals, and nature lovers to get into the spirit of the season and reconnect with the outdoors after a long winter.
Helping rabbits is easy. Here’s everything you need to submit a NH Rabbit Report:
- Date of the observation
- Time of the observation
- Location of the sighting (address, intersection, or GPS coordinates)
- Description of the area and habitat where you saw the rabbit – e.g. backyard, shrubs, forest, roadside, size of the area, height of vegetation, etc. Provide as much detail as possible.
- A photo! Photos aren’t required, but they greatly increase the usefulness of sighting information. We have some tips for capturing a great rabbit photo.
Species identification skills are not required to contribute to NH Rabbit Reports. New Hampshire is home to two species of rabbits, the eastern cottontail and the New England cottontail, as well as one species of hare, the snowshoe hare. While the eastern and New England cottontail rabbits are nearly identical in appearance, a major difference is in their habitat requirements. Eastern cottontails are able to survive in human-dominated fragmented habitats, including open fields, forest edges, small thickets, and even golf courses and suburban lawns. New England cottontails, however, rely on dense thickets for their habitat needs and rarely venture far from protective cover.
“Data collected by NH Rabbit Reports provides us with valuable information on the state’s rabbit population and informs our conservation efforts. Every report helps."
- Heidi Holman
N.H. Fish and Game
NH Fish and Game coordinates a comprehensive effort to survey for the presence of the state-endangered New England cottontail, but less is known about where and in what numbers eastern cottontails are found in the state.
NH Rabbit Reports needs your contributions to inform rabbit research in the Granite State!
Hop into citizen science today.
NH Rabbit Reports is a citizen science project sponsored by UNH Cooperative Extension and the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, with support from the Wildlife Heritage Foundation of New Hampshire. The project collects sighting information, including data and photos, to help researchers better understand the distribution and potential abundance of rabbit species in New Hampshire.
For more information, visit the project website at nhrabbitreports.org or contact Haley Andreozzi at haley.andreozzi@unh.edu or (603) 862-5327.
