It is hard to guess what a New England cottontail weights. But we have the answer:
An adult New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis) on average weights 814 grams (1.79 lbs).
The New England cottontail is from the family Leporidae (genus: Sylvilagus). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 36.3 cm (1′ 3″). Usually, New England cottontails have 4 babies per litter.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
The New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis), also called the gray rabbit, brush rabbit, wood hare, wood rabbit, or cooney, is a species of cottontail rabbit represented by fragmented populations in areas of New England, specifically from southern Maine to southern New York. This species bears a close resemblance to the eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus), which has been introduced in much of the New England cottontail home range. The eastern cottontail is now more common in it.Litvaitis et al. (2006) estimated that the current area of occupancy in its historic range is 12,180 km2 (4,700 sq mi) – some 86% less than the occupied range in 1960. Because of this decrease in this species’ numbers and habitat, the New England cottontail is a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Cottontail hunting has been restricted in some areas where the eastern and New England cottontail species coexist in order to protect the remaining New England cottontail population.Rabbits require habitat patches of at least 12 acres to maintain a stable population. In New Hampshire, the number of suitable patches dropped from 20 to 8 in the early 2000s. The ideal habitat is 25 acres of continuous early successional habitat within a larger landscape that provides shrub wetlands and dense thickets. Federal funding has been used for habitat restoration work on state lands, including the planting of shrubs and other growth critical to the rabbit’s habitat. Funding has also been made available to private landowners who are willing to create thicket-type brush habitat which doesn’t have much economic value.
Animals of the same family as a New England cottontail
We found other animals of the Leporidae family:
- Eastern cottontail bringing 1.21 kilos (2.67 lbs) to the scale
- Marsh rabbit bringing 1.36 kilos (3 lbs) to the scale
- Omilteme cottontail bringing 3 kilos (6.61 lbs) to the scale
- Tapeti with a weight of 988 grams
- Pygmy rabbit with a weight of 437 grams
- San José brush rabbit with a size of 29.4 cm (1′ 0″)
- African savanna hare bringing 1.77 kilos (3.9 lbs) to the scale
- Riverine rabbit bringing 1.75 kilos (3.86 lbs) to the scale
- European rabbit bringing 1.59 kilos (3.51 lbs) to the scale
- Tehuantepec jackrabbit bringing 3 kilos (6.61 lbs) to the scale
Animals with the same weight as a New England cottontail
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Sylvilagus transitionalis:
- Central American squirrel monkey bringing 714 grams to the scale
- Peruvian night monkey bringing 800 grams to the scale
- Southern brown bandicoot bringing 825 grams to the scale
- Eastern barred bandicoot bringing 903 grams to the scale
- Yellow ground squirrel bringing 779 grams to the scale
- European hedgehog bringing 789 grams to the scale
- Moluccan flying fox bringing 728 grams to the scale
- Brown-tailed mongoose bringing 711 grams to the scale
- Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine bringing 751 grams to the scale
- Nancy Ma’s night monkey bringing 791 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a New England cottontail
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as New England cottontail:
- Steppe polecat with a size of 43.2 cm (1′ 6″)
- Tapeti with a size of 36.3 cm (1′ 3″)
- New Britain water rat with a size of 29.2 cm (1′ 0″)
- Spotted linsang with a size of 35.4 cm (1′ 2″)
- Striped polecat with a size of 33.5 cm (1′ 2″)
- Tufted ground squirrel with a size of 40.6 cm (1′ 4″)
- Mountain cuscus with a size of 40.7 cm (1′ 5″)
- Malayan weasel with a size of 32.6 cm (1′ 1″)
- Red-bellied titi with a size of 35.8 cm (1′ 3″)
- Cuban solenodon with a size of 34.9 cm (1′ 2″)
Animals with the same litter size as a New England cottontail
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (4) as a New England cottontail: