With our recent heat and humidity, frigid winter mornings are hard to recall. This past winter, I was out early on many a cold morning following nighttime snowfall. The goal was to collect freshly deposited cottontail rabbit fecal pellets (see image). As the roughage of the woody, winter diet passes down the digestive tract of a rabbit, it scrapes off epithelial cells. That epithelial DNA can then be used to distinguish between the two cottontails that occur in southern New England: the imperiled New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis) and the ubiquitous, non-native Eastern cottontail (S. floridanus). In the field these two species can’t be told apart conclusively based on their visual appearance.
Got the DNA results back today – helpful for establishing the likely identity of the rabbits in our study, but not terribly exciting from a conservation perspective – all pellets from Eastern cottontails. Thanks to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for its collaboration in this effort. Interested in further background on the New England cottontail? Visit: http://news.yahoo.com/seeking-save-peter-cottontail-extinction-145130105.html