Rabbit Count Being Conducted in the District

D.C. needs Capitol Hill residents to help spot local rabbits.

Anyone who sees a brown rabbit with a cotton ball tail is asked to report the sighting to the District Department of the Environment’s Fisheries and Wildlife Division. The Eastern cottontail rabbits are a “species of greatest conservation need” in the District’s Wildlife Action Plan.

Interested volunteer “citizen scientists” should email [email protected] for information about monitoring the rabbits.

Counts conducted by DDOE staff have found many square miles of the District without the rabbits, said Lindsay Rohrbaugh, a wildlife biologist with the agency. DDOE is hoping to discover a few rabbits in every square mile of D.C., with the help of residents.

Most reported rabbit sightings have come from Northwest, near Rock Creek Park, where many of the roughly 100 citizen scientists live, Rohrbaugh said.

But rabbits are on Capitol Hill, too, she said.

“I know that they’re there,” Rohrbaugh said. “I’m sure they’re in everybody’s garden.”

Photo via Flickr/Donald Hines