Maine has logged just 10 records of the European rabbit, a mix of iNaturalist sightings and GBIF entries scattered Down East. That tiny count fits the species’ real story here: this rabbit isn’t a native part of Maine’s wildlife, it’s an occasional feral or escaped animal turning up near towns and refuges.
An introduced rabbit, not a wild native
Across the United States, the European rabbit persists only in scattered feral colonies and escaped-pet populations, not as an established wild species, and Maine’s handful of records fit that same pattern. The animal’s real story starts an ocean away, in Iberia, and a sighting near Acadia, Rachel Carson, or Petit Manan more likely traces back to an escaped pet or a small local colony than to a wild population spreading through Maine’s woods and fields.
Burrows need open, short ground
Where European rabbits do persist outside their native range, they need short grass, diggable soil, and cover close together, think mowed fields, cemeteries, or refuge edges, not Maine’s deep conifer forest or rocky highlands. That narrow habitat requirement likely limits any Maine colony to small patches near people rather than a spreading wild population.
Status in Maine
Maine’s status data doesn’t flag this rabbit as nonindigenous, so the state record treats it as native wherever it turns up, even though the species isn’t a natural part of Maine’s fauna. No NatureServe state rank exists for it here, a sign of just how few, and how poorly tracked, these local occurrences really are.
Full species profile
