Massachusetts holds 66 New England cottontail records since 2000, spread across a dozen counties with no single stronghold. Worcester County leads with 17, Plymouth adds 11, and the rest scatter from Middlesex and the Cape out to Dukes County, where six records show the rabbit persists on at least one of the islands. That spread fits a species tied to young, brushy growth: wherever dense thicket briefly takes hold, from powerline cuts to coastal scrub, a pocket of native cottontails can hang on while the cover lasts.
Field identification is the standing caveat here. The New England cottontail is so similar to the introduced eastern cottontail that most reports need a specimen, a skull, or DNA to be trusted, which keeps the confirmed record thin even where the rabbit is doing fine. Reports crest in February, the season for track and pellet surveys in snow, with a smaller midsummer rise. NatureServe ranks the species imperiled in the state. A record from June 2026 confirms the search, and the rabbit, are both still active.
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