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The New England cottontail (''Sylvilagus transitionalis''), also called the gray rabbit, brush rabbit, wood hare, wood rabbit, or cooney, is a species of cottontail rabbit represented by fragmented populations in areas of New England, specifically from southern Maine to southern New York.〔(Sylvilagus transitionalis (New England Cottontail, Wood Rabbit) ), IUCN.〕〔(Species profile, New England Cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus transitionalis) ), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.〕 This species bears a close resemblance to the Eastern Cottontail (''Sylvilagus floridanus''), which has been introduced in much of the New England Cottontail home range. The eastern cottontail is now more common in it. Litvaitis et al. (2006) estimated that the current area of occupancy in its historic range is - some 86% less than the occupied range in 1960.〔 Because of this decrease in this species' numbers and habitat, the New England cottontail is a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Cottontail hunting has been restricted in some areas where the eastern and New England cottontail species coexist in order to protect the remaining New England cottontail population.〔(Hunting Small game in New Hampshire – N.H. Fish and Game )〕 Rabbits require habitat patches of at least 12 acres to maintain a stable population. In New Hampshire, the number of suitable patches dropped from 20 to 8 in the early 2000s. The ideal habitat is 25 acres of continuous early successional habitat within a larger landscape that provides shrub wetlands and dense thickets. Federal funding has been used for habitat restoration work on state lands, including the planting of shrubs and other growth critical to the rabbit's habitat. Funding has also been made available to private landowners who are willing to create thicket-type brush habitat which doesn't have much economic value.〔 ==Description== The New England cottontail is a medium-sized rabbit almost identical to the eastern cottontail.〔〔 The two species look nearly identical, and can only be reliably distinguished by genetic testing of tissue, through fecal samples (i.e., of rabbit pellets), or by an examination of the rabbits' skulls, which shows a key morphological distinction: the frontonasal skull sutures of eastern cottontail are smooth lines, while the New England cottontails' are jagged or interdigitated.〔〔Mark Elbroch, ''Animal Skulls: A Guide to North American Species'', Stackpole Books (2006), p. 247.〕 The New England cottontail also typically has black hair between and on the anterior surface of the ear, which the Eastern cottontails lacks.〔 The New England cottontail weighs between 995 and 1347 g and is between 398 and 439 mm long, with dark brown coats with a "penciled effect" and tails with white undersides.〔 They are sexually dimorphic, with females larger than males.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「New England cottontail」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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