Developing a habitat suitability index to guide restoration of New England cottontail habitats

Wildlife Society Bulletin

Volumn 40, Issue 1, 2016, Pages 69-77

  Warren, Alena ^a   Litvaitis, John A ^a   Keirstead, Donald ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE   (United States)

^b USDA NRCS   (United States)

Author keywords

HSI; lagomorphs; restoration; Sylvilagus transitionalis

Indexed keywords

CONSERVATION STATUS; ENDANGERED SPECIES; HABITAT FRAGMENTATION; HABITAT LOSS; LAGOMORPH; LITERATURE REVIEW; MANAGEMENT PRACTICE; PERCEPTION; POPULATION DYNAMICS; RESTORATION ECOLOGY; SHRUBLAND; UNDERSTORY;

NEW ENGLAND; UNITED STATES;

LAGOMORPHA; SYLVILAGUS; SYLVILAGUS TRANSITIONALIS;

EID: 84962074589     PISSN: 00917648     EISSN: 19385463     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/wsb.616     Document Type: Article

References (41)

1. Arbuthnot, M., 2008. A landowner's guide to New England cottontail habitat management. Environmental Defense Fund. http://apps.edf.org/documents/8828-New-England-Cottontail-Guide.pdf. Accessed 06 Jan 2013.
2. Barbour, M. S., and, J. A. Litvaitis,. 1993. Niche dimensions of New England cottontails in relation to habitat patch size. Oecologia 95: 321-327.
3. Bowman, J., and, J. F. Robitaille,. 2005. An assessment of expert-based marten habitat models used for forest management in Ontario. Forestry Chronicle 81: 801-807.
4. Brooks, R. P., 1997. Improving habitat suitability index models. Wildlife Society Bulletin 25: 163-167.
5. Brown, A., and, J. A. Litvaitis,. 1995. Habitat features associated with predation of New England cottontails: what scale is appropriate ? Canada Journal of Zoology 73: 1005-1011.
6. Burgman, M., D. Breininger, B. Duncan, and, S. Ferson,. 2001. Setting reliability bounds on habitat suitability indices. Ecological Applications 11: 70-78.
7. Butler, B. J., and, Z. Ma,. 2011. Family forest owner trends in the northern United States. Northern Journal of Applied Forestry 28: 13-18.
8. Chapman, J. A., 1975. Sylvilagus transitionalis. Mammalian Species 55: 1-4.
9. Chapman, J. A., and, J. A. Litvaitis,. 2003. Eastern cottontails and their allies. Pages 101-125 in, G. A. Feldhammer, B. C. Thompson, and, J. A. Chapman, editors. Wild mammals of North America. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
10. Cook, J. G., and, L. L. Irwin,. 1985. Validation and modification of a habitat suitability model for pronghorns. Wildlife Society Bulletin 13: 440-448.
11. Dalke, P. D., and, P. R. Sime,. 1941. Food habits of the eastern and New England cottontails. Journal of Wildlife Management 5: 216-228.
12. Fenderson, L. E., A. I. Kovach, J. A. Litvaitis, and, M. K. Litvaitis,. 2011. Population genetic structure and history of fragmented remnant populations of the New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis). Conservation Genetics 12: 943-958.
13. Fickenscher, J. L., J. A. Litvaitis, T. D. Lee, and, P. C. Johnson,. 2014. Insect responses to invasive shrubs: implications to managing thicket habitats in the northeastern United States. Forest Ecology and Management 322: 127-135.
14. Fuller, S., and, A. Tur,. 2012. Conservation strategy for the New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis). http://www.newenglandcottontail.org/sites/default/files/research-documents/conservation
15. Germaine, S., D. Ignizio, D. Keinath, and, H. Copeland,. 2014. Predicting occupancy for pygmy rabbits in Wyoming: an independent evaluation of two species distribution models. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management 5: 298-314.
16. Jackson, S. N., 1973. Distribution of cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus spp.) in northern New England. Thesis, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA.
17. Johnston, J. E., 1972. Identification and distribution of cottontail rabbits in southern New England. Thesis, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA.
18. Linkkila, T. E., 1971. Influence of habitat upon changes within the interspecific Connecticut cottontail population. Thesis, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA.
19. Litvaitis, J. A., 1993. Response of early successional vertebrates to historic changes in land use. Conservation Biology 7: 866-873.
20. Litvaitis, J. A., 2003. Are pre-Columbian conditions relevant baselines for managed forests in the northeastern United States ? Forest Ecology and Management 185: 113-126.
21. Litvaitis, J. A., M. S. Barbour, A. L. Brown, A. I. Kovach, J. D. Oehler, B. L. Probert, D. F. Smith, J. P. Tash, R. Villafuerte, and, M. K. Litvaitis,. 2007. Testing multiple hypotheses to identify the causes of the decline of a lagomorph species: the New England cottontail as a case study. Pages 167-185 in, P. C. Alves, N. Ferrand, and, K. Hackländer, editors. Biology of lagomorphs-evolution, ecology and conservation. Springer-Verlag, New York, New York, USA.
22. Litvaitis, J. A., and, W. Jakubas,. 2004. New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis) assessment 2004. Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Bangor, USA.
23. Litvaitis, J. A., B. Johnson, W. Jakubas, and, K. Morris,. 2003. Distribution and habitat features associated with remnant populations of New England cottontails in Maine. Canadian Journal of Zoology 81: 877-887.
24. Litvaitis, J. A., J. L. Norment, K. Boland, K. O'Brien, R. Stevens, D. Keirstead, T. Lee, J. D. Oehler, J. M. Taylor, S. Bickford, and, M. D. Tarr,. 2013. Toward consensus-based actions that balance invasive plant management and conservation of at-risk fauna. Environmental Management 52: 1313-1319.
25. Litvaitis, J. A., J. A. Sherburne, and, J. A. Bissonette,. 1985. A comparison of methods used to examine snowshoe hare habitat use. Journal of Wildlife Management 49: 693-695.
26. Litvaitis, J. A., J. P. Tash, M. K. Litvaitis, M. N. Marchand, A. I. Kovach, and, R. Innes,. 2006. A range-wide survey to determine the current distribution of New England cottontails. Wildlife Society Bulletin 34: 1190-1197.
27. Litvaitis, J. A., and, R. Villafuerte,. 1996. Factors affecting the persistence of New England cottontail metapopulations: the role of habitat management. Wildlife Society Bulletin 24: 686-693.
28. Litvaitis, J. A., D. L. Wagner, J. L. Confer, M. D. Tarr, and, E. J. Snyder,. 1999. Early successional forests and shrub-dominated habitats: land-use artifact or critical community in the northeastern United States ? Northeast Wildlife 54: 101-118.
29. McComb, W. C., J. R. Sedell, and, T. D. Buchholz,. 1990. Dam-site selection by beavers in an eastern Oregon basin. Great Basin Naturalist 50: 273-281.
30. Nudds, T., 1977. Quantifying the vegetative structure of wildlife cover. Wildlife Society Bulletin 5: 113-117.
31. Probert, B. L., and, J. A. Litvaitis,. 1996. Behavioral interactions between invading and endemic lagomorphs: implications for conserving a declining species. Biological Conservation 76: 289-295.
32. Robel, R. J., L. B. Fox, and, K. E. Kemp,. 1993. Relationship between habitat suitability index values and ground counts of beaver colonies in Kansas. Wildlife Society Bulletin 21: 415-421.
33. Roloff, G. J., and, B. J. Kernohan,. 1999. Evaluating suitability reliability index of models. Wildlife Society Bulletin 27: 973-985.
34. Schamberger, M., and, W. B. Krohn,. 1982. Status of the habitat evaluation procedures. Transactions of the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference 47: 154-164.
35. Smith, D. F., and, J. A. Litvaitis,. 2000. Foraging strategies of sympatric lagomorphs: implications for differential success in fragmented landscapes. Canadian Journal of Zoology 78: 2134-2141.
36. Tash, J., and, J. A. Litvaitis,. 2007. Characteristics of occupied habitats and identification of sites for restoration and translocation of New England cottontail populations. Biological Conservation 137: 584-598.
37. Terrell, J., and, J. Carpenter,. 1997. Selected habitat suitability-index model evaluations. U.S. Geological Survey Biological Resources Division Technical Reports Series, Information and Technology Report 1997-0005, Washington, D.C., USA.
38. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [USFWS],. 1981. Ecological services manual. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., USA.
39. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [USFWS],. 1989. Animal notice of review. Federal Register 54: 554-579.
40. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [USFWS],. 2015. Endangered and Threatened wildlife and plants; 12-month finding on a petition to list the New England cottontail as an Endangered or Threatened species. Federal Register 80: 55286-55304.
41. van Horne, B., 1983. Density as a misleading indicator of habitat quality. Journal of Wildlife Management 47: 893-901.