Desert cottontail
Audubon's cottontail rabbits ( Sylvilagus audubonii )
The Audubon cottontail rabbits ( Sylvilagus audubonii ) is a mammal in the genus of cottontail rabbit among lagomorphs. It lives in deserts and other arid regions in the southwestern United States and Mexico.
Features
The Audubon cottontail rabbit is a relatively large species of the genus with a body weight of about 1000 grams. The back color and the tail are gray, the belly is white in color. It has long ears, which are only slightly hairy on the inner sides. The tail is long and the feet are also only slightly hairy.
Dissemination
The distribution area of the Audubon cottontail rabbit comprises the western United States as well as large parts of Mexico. It ranges from northern Montana near the Canadian border on the western and central states of the United States to central Mexico. The western border is the Pacific Ocean in California and Baja California, to the east the territory of the Great Plains stretches as far as Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota. In Mexico, the distribution area includes not only the Baja California Regions Baja California Sur, the largest part of Sonora and Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, western Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, eastern Durango, to the north of Sinaloa, the northeastern Jalisco, the north of Guanajuato and Queretaro, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Puebla, and a small portion of western Veracruz.
As habitats colonized the type deserts and other dry regions, but in addition it also occurs in forest and grassland. The altitudinal distribution ranges from sea level and below it in Death Valley up into areas of more than 1,800 meters above sea level.
Way of life
The Audubon cottontail rabbit is especially in the evening and early morning active during the hottest times of the day it rests mostly. It 's a loner, but can also occur in greater numbers. It is able to climb trees and uses increases and tree stumps lookout points.
The mating season usually begins in December or January, and last for seven to nine months. It varies regionally and depends on the temperatures and other factors. The litters consist on average of two to four pups and are thus compared to other species of the genus rather small.
System
The Audubon cottontail rabbit is assigned as an independent species the cottontail rabbits ( genus Sylvilagus ). Depending on the source are described up to twelve subspecies:
- Sylvilagus audubonii arizonae
- S. a audubonii
- S. a minor
- S. a baileyi
- S. a confinis
- S. a sanctidiegi
- S. a goldmani
- S. a parvulus
- S. a cedrophilus
- S. a neomexicanus
- S. a valli cola
- S. a warreni
Threats and conservation
The Audubon cottontail rabbit is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN ) due to the population size and the large distribution area as not at risk ( least concern ). It is both in his diet as well as in the populated habitat generalist and a decline in populations is not known.