"Kidnapped" Cottontails Return to Wild

Wildlife rehabilitation is an ever changing field that affords those involved the opportunity to work closely with a number of different species of animals. The other, more often overlooked, side of the field is the opportunity to interact with the public regarding wildlife. Generally, most people are happy to see wildlife and learn about them. However, on a few rare instances, we have encountered Long Islanders who are sadly not very enthused about our wild neighbors.

On April 7th, while at a veterinary office with one of our permanent animals, we encountered one of these more difficult types. A woman, with a box of four juvenile Eastern Cottontail rabbits in hand, had brought the babies to the veterinarian as she did not want them in her yard. Despite encouragement to reunite the babies with their mother, she adamantly refused to return them. These babies were young, healthy and were "kidnapped" from their nest while the mother was away. We admitted the four cottontails to our clinic.

As an animal that spends its life on the run from hawks and other predators, Eastern cottontails can be very stressed in captivity. Their stress levels make them very difficult to raise. The cottontails were tube fed a milk replacer at our hospital multiple times a day. Before long, they began to eat grasses, clover and dandelion on their own. On April 23, our volunteers and staff set the cottontails free again in the beautiful Walled Garden at Caumsett State Historic Park. Within minutes, they were acclimated to their surroundings and enjoying the delicious weeds and plants. (Photos of the release are below.)

Eastern Cottontails are the only native rabbit indigenous to Long Island. They are a medium sized rabbit with brown fur and a white cotton tail. A single mother rabbit can give birth to as many as 36 babies in one year. The mother rabbit will pull fur from her body and make a nest in a shallow depression in the ground. The young are often mistaken for abandoned as the mother only visits the nest in the early morning and late evening to feed the babies. Young cottontails are independent by the time they reach about 5 weeks of age.