New York is the southwestern edge of the New England cottontail’s range, and the record is thin: 24 reports since 2000, spread across ten counties with no cluster bigger than Rensselaer’s seven. The pattern hugs the Hudson Valley and the Capital District, Rensselaer, Columbia, and Albany in the north, Dutchess, Putnam, and Westchester toward the city, with a few outliers west into Madison and Cortland counties. The Capital District Wildlife Management Area is one of the few named places with multiple records.
February leads the calendar with 10 reports, the mark of winter tracking work rather than rabbit behavior, since cottontails are active in every season. Two cautions hang over the whole file. First, this rabbit is a near-perfect double of the introduced eastern cottontail, so records need hard evidence behind them. Second, the most recent dated record is from February 2020, and NatureServe ranks the species critically imperiled in New York. Whether the gap means fewer rabbits or simply less looking is exactly the kind of question a new confirmed record would help answer.
Full species profile
