Week of January 19, 2009
Updated 1/23 Help on way for New England cottontail By DAVID BROOKS Staff Writer, Nashua Telegraph The cutest endangered species in New Hampshire is getting some federal help – which is good, because the New England cottontail needs all the help it can get." This is one of our top priorities," John Kanter, the state's endangered-wildlife program coordinator, said of the elusive bunny. As recently as the 1960s, the New England cottontail was found from the Hudson River through southern Maine and also thrived in New Hampshire. Today, officials know of only 10 places where the species is found at all, mostly in a few flooded areas along the Merrimack River south of Concord and in the Seacoast. The New England cottontail, like many species, has suffered from changes in habitat. It likes brushy land in transition between field and forest, with lots of brambles and low bushes where it can hide and find food. That sort of thicket was common when New Hampshire was filled with far...