Geographic Range
Robust cottontails, or Davis Mountain cottontails, occupy mountainous areas in the
southern United States and northern Mexico. They are found in the Trans-Pecos region
between the Rio Grande River in New Mexico and the East Pecos River in Texas. This
region is highly mountainous, containing the Guadalupe, Davis, Chinati, and Chisos
Mountain Ranges, which are home to this species. It was previously thought that they
had been extirpated from the Chisos Mountains, but populations have been found there
between 2007 and 2012 in Big Bend National Park. Some populations are found in the
Coahuila Range in Mexico, south of what was once considered their geographic distribution.
Habitat
Robust cottontails inhabit pinyon-oak-juniper woodland areas in mountain ranges at
elevations mostly between 4700 and 8000 feet, though sometimes also at lower elevations.
These areas tend to be dry, brushy mountain areas, and these rabbits inhabit dense
brush of
sumac
or
mahogany
, emerging only toward evening to feed.
- Habitat Regions
- temperate
- terrestrial
- Terrestrial Biomes
- scrub forest
- mountains
Physical Description
Robust cottontails are larger than their closest sister species,
eastern cottontails
. This light gray species of cottontail has large ears and light gray fur on the dorsal
portion of its body with darker iron gray rump and black washing. The tail and underparts
are white, the shoulders and top of the tail are brownish, and the abdomen is gray.
They have several typical features shared by all species of
Sylvilagus
: large feet and ears, skulls containing a highly fenestrated maxillary bone, as well
as supraorbital processes on the frontal bone, and straight cutting edges on the incisors
with peglike teeth behind. The dental formula is 2/1, 0/0, 3/2, 3/3. The feet are
particularly thickly furred. Cranial morphometrics most distinctly separate
S. robustus
from its closest relative,
S. floridanus
. These distinguishing features include:
S. robustus
possesses 2 distinct mandibular foramina of different size and conformation than
S. floridanus
; different shape of the interparietal and alisphenoid bones; lack of a tympanic process
in
S. robustus
; mental foramena twice as long and located on the dorsal aspect of the mandible in
S. robustus
, while foramena on
S. floridanus
are less than one half as long and high and usually located on the labial aspect
of the mandible.
- Other Physical Features
- endothermic
- homoiothermic
- bilateral symmetry
- Sexual Dimorphism
- female larger
Reproduction
The mating system of robust cottontails has not been extensively studied, but it is
thought that mating behaviors are similar to other
Sylvilagus
species. Breeding occurs at higher elevations than
eastern cottontails
, so may begin later on average. In almost all
Sylvilagus
species, aggressive male hierarchy systems exist where dominant males are able to
obtain more mating opportunities. Dominance is maintained through aggressive interactions
among males. Courting behaviors occur among members of
Sylvilagus
species, including defensive displays mainly at night. There is little additional
information available on mating behavior in robust cottontails. Breeding among
Sylvilagus
species is promiscuous, with males and females each having multiple partners.
- Mating System
- polygynandrous (promiscuous)
Sylvilagus
females can produce several litters per year. Like other
lagomorphs
, they exhibit induced ovulation, in which ovulation does not occur until copulation,
causing breeding synchrony. Young are altricial and born in a nest. The number of
young per litter varies according to time of year and corresponding temperature, rainfall,
and food availability in the habitat and age of the female. In the range of robust
cottontails, mean litter sizes of 4 have been reported. A female's first litter size
generally ranges from 2.95 to 5.10. Mean litter size in
eastern cottontails
, the closest sister species, varies from 3.60 to 5.60. Females can produce up to
5 litters per year.
Gestation length information for robust cottontails are not available. However, a
strong correlation between latitude and gestation length has been reported for all
Sylvilagus
species. Populations in southern areas have longer gestation periods while populations
in northern areas have shorter gestation periods to support more litters in a shorter
period of warm weather. The average gestation period for
S. floridanus
is 28 days, with a range of 25 to 35 days.
Sexual maturity for both males and females occurs at one year of age. However, juvenile
females (under 1 year of age) may participate in breeding in their first summer. Most
Sylvilagus
young reach reproductive maturity after one year and participate in second year breeding.
Some juvenile male reproductive activity has been reported (under 1 year of age),
but has been presumed insignificant due to the polygamous breeding pattern of
Sylvilagus
. More young males may participate in late season breeding during their first year,
as decreased libido has been observed among more senior males late in the season in
many species of
Sylvilagus
.
Neonates of
eastern cottontails
weigh between 35 and 45 grams upon birth. The young open their eyes between day 6
and 7 and weaning is complete by day 15, with the young beginning to venture out of
the nest by day 12.
- Key Reproductive Features
- iteroparous
- year-round breeding
- gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
- sexual
- induced ovulation
- viviparous
Female robust cottontails are primarily responsible for caring for the young. Before
the litter is born, the mother builds a nest, a slanting hole in the ground in a protected
area, and lines it with leaves and a layer of her own fur. In Texas, five of these
nests averaged 12.5 cm in length, 10.4 cm in width, and 9.1 cm in depth (Bothma and
Teer, 1977). Young are born naked, blind, and therefore entirely dependent on their
mothers. Mothers care for their young until they are able to leave the nest.
- Parental Investment
- altricial
- female parental care
-
pre-fertilization
- provisioning
-
protecting
- female
-
pre-hatching/birth
-
provisioning
- female
-
protecting
- female
-
provisioning
-
pre-weaning/fledging
-
provisioning
- female
-
protecting
- female
-
provisioning
Lifespan/Longevity
Robust cottontails live up to 3 years in the wild but have been recorded living up
to 8 years in captivity. Predation is the main limit to lifespan of robust cottontails
in the wild.
Behavior
Robust cottontail behavior has not been extensively studied because of their recent
recognition as a distinct species and the difficulty of locating populations in the
wild. Behavior is likely to be very similar to their sister species,
eastern cottontails
. Eastern cottontails are solitary and congregate only during the mating season, when
males often interact aggressively in competition for mates.
Cottontail
species are predominantly active between dusk and dawn, times at which it is safest
to enter open areas and leave their protective brush environment. In areas where predator
populations have been reduced by humans, densities can reach 20 rabbits per hectare.
In other areas, densities can be as low as 1 individual per hectare. Territory size
varies greatly by population and is dependent on available vegetation.
- Key Behaviors
- terricolous
- saltatorial
- nocturnal
- crepuscular
- motile
- sedentary
- solitary
- dominance hierarchies
Home Range
Cottontails
generally do not maintain territories. Home ranges overlap where there is cover and
food availability during the late fall and winter. However, female home ranges do
not overlap during the breeding season. Home range sizes vary substantially seasonally
and by habitat quality.
Communication and Perception
Little specific information on communication and perception in robust cottontails
is available. Mating communication is primarily based on scent and visual displays
by males who compete over female mates. Sound plays a less important role in communication
for most cottontails than does scent. Scents are secreted from special glands under
the chin and in the groin area. Though rarely vocal,
cottontails
are capable of uttering high pitched squealing noises as a warning when attacked
by a predator and they may drum their rear feet loudly as a warning.
- Other Communication Modes
- scent marks
Food Habits
Robust cottontails are strictly herbivorous, as are other
cottontails
. However, the specific plants eaten vary substantially among species depending on
local availability. Cottontails feed on a variety of grasses and forbs but, when such
vegetation is scarce during the winter, they eat the twigs and bark of shrubs and
small trees. Coprophagy, or the reingestion of fecal pellets, has been documented
for many species, although it has not been investigated closely in
S. robustus
. It is likely that soft, so-called “green food” pellets are ingested by
S. robustus
before they are even dropped, as 60% of these pellets are composed of useful nutrients.
- Primary Diet
-
herbivore
- folivore
- lignivore
- coprophage
- Plant Foods
- leaves
- wood, bark, or stems
- flowers
- Other Foods
- dung
Predation
Robust cottontails experience predation by a number of mammalian and avian predators.
In general,
cottontail
species behavioral responses to predation are well documented. They use dense cover
to hide from predators and are active in open areas mostly at night. Cottontails also
remain still and quiet when under threat by a predator in order to evade detection
and are cryptically colored. Little is known about specific predators species of robust
cottontails, but they may be preyed on by gray foxes (
Urocyon cinereoargenteus
), bobcats (
Lynx rufus
), golden eagles (
Aquila chrysaetos
), and great horned owls (
Bubo virginianus
), all of which are found in their range.
- Anti-predator Adaptations
- cryptic
Ecosystem Roles
Robust cottontails play an important role as a food source for their predators, a
relationship which has been proposed to keep their populations cyclic and cause them
to peak approximately once every ten years. In addition, they play an important role
as hosts to a range of parasites, most importantly ticks, a vector for
Rickettsia rickettsii
. Specific information on parasites of robust cottontails is not available. Other
Sylvilagus
species are host to a range of ectoparasites, including ticks of the
Ixodidae
family, fleas of the
Pulicidae
and
Leptopsyllidae
families, and warbles of the family
Cuterebridae
. Endoparasites include the nematodes
Obeliscoides
,
Trichostrongylus
,
Longistriata
, and
Trichuris
, and the cestodes
Mosgovoyia
and
Taenia
.
- ticks ( Ixodidae )
- fleas ( Pulicidae )
- fleas ( Leptopsyllidae )
- warbles ( Cuterebridae )
- nematodes ( Obeliscoides )
- nematodes ( Trichostrongylus )
- nematodes ( Longistriata )
- nematodes ( Trichuris )
- cestodes ( Mosgovoyia )
- cestodes ( Taenia )
Economic Importance for Humans: Positive
Robust cottontails are sometimes hunted as game. Although other
cottontail
species reproduce rapidly, robust cottontail populations may not survive hunting
pressure well because of their limited range.
- Positive Impacts
- food
- body parts are source of valuable material
Economic Importance for Humans: Negative
Robust cottontails have caused minor damage to orchard trees in winter and gardens
or other agriculturally important crops in summer. Contrary to their close relative,
S. floridanus
, robust cottontails are not commonly found in residential areas.
- Negative Impacts
- crop pest
Conservation Status
Sylvilagus robustus
is listed as Endangered on IUCN’s Red List, though the population trend is unknown.
Other organizations do not list robust cottontails as endangered, likely because of
its recent recognition as a distinct species. Because of this recent change, little
is known about population trends.
Other Comments
Taxonomic history in this group is complicated and contested.
Sylvilagus robustus
was first described as a distinct species by Nelson in 1909 on the basis of morphological
features and lack of apparent intergrades, but was relegated to a subspecies of
S. floridanus
by Hall and Kelson on the basis of apparent morphological intermediacy of a single
specimen. In 1974, Davis’s Mammals of Texas listed
S. robustus
as a separate species. It was again described as a subspecies by Schmidly (1977)
in his Mammals of the Trans-Pecos after his examination of the widely varied
S. floridanus
throughout Texas and New Mexico, noting the “considerable overlap in external and
cranial measurements among examples of
S. robustus
and
S. floridanus
specimens” (Vestal, 2005: 3) and the subspecific level differences within
S. robustus
. In 1994, Schmidly and Davis again updated the classification, noting classes of
nominal cranial differences between
S. floridanus
and
S. robustus
, which were confirmed by a morphological analysis of 26 cranial, mandibular, and
dental characters in 5 taxa of cottontails (Ruedas, 1998). Since that time,
S. robustus
has been recognized as a distinct species, although a 2005 study by Vestal suggested
that subspecific genetic variation in cytochrome b exceeds interspecies divergence
between
S. robustus
and
S. f. cognatus
. In response and explanation to this study, Lee et al. (2010) amplified fragment
length polymorphisms using DNA fingerprinting techniques, which showed that there
was a lack of gene flow between the two species and that this, combined with morphological
data, should be enough to classify
S. robustus
as a distinct species.
Additional Links
Contributors
Stephanie Schuyler (author), Yale University, Eric Sargis (editor), Yale University, Rachel Racicot (editor), Yale University, Tanya Dewey (editor), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Catherine Kent (editor), Special Projects.
- Nearctic
-
living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.
- native range
-
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
- temperate
-
that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).
- terrestrial
-
Living on the ground.
- scrub forest
-
scrub forests develop in areas that experience dry seasons.
- mountains
-
This terrestrial biome includes summits of high mountains, either without vegetation or covered by low, tundra-like vegetation.
- endothermic
-
animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.
- bilateral symmetry
-
having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.
- polygynandrous
-
the kind of polygamy in which a female pairs with several males, each of which also pairs with several different females.
- iteroparous
-
offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).
- year-round breeding
-
breeding takes place throughout the year
- sexual
-
reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female
- induced ovulation
-
ovulation is stimulated by the act of copulation (does not occur spontaneously)
- viviparous
-
reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.
- altricial
-
young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.
- female parental care
-
parental care is carried out by females
- saltatorial
-
specialized for leaping or bounding locomotion; jumps or hops.
- nocturnal
-
active during the night
- crepuscular
-
active at dawn and dusk
- motile
-
having the capacity to move from one place to another.
- sedentary
-
remains in the same area
- solitary
-
lives alone
- dominance hierarchies
-
ranking system or pecking order among members of a long-term social group, where dominance status affects access to resources or mates
- acoustic
-
uses sound to communicate
- chemical
-
uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
- scent marks
-
communicates by producing scents from special gland(s) and placing them on a surface whether others can smell or taste them
- visual
-
uses sight to communicate
- tactile
-
uses touch to communicate
- acoustic
-
uses sound to communicate
- chemical
-
uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
- cryptic
-
having markings, coloration, shapes, or other features that cause an animal to be camouflaged in its natural environment; being difficult to see or otherwise detect.
- food
-
A substance that provides both nutrients and energy to a living thing.
- herbivore
-
An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.
- folivore
-
an animal that mainly eats leaves.
- coprophage
-
an animal that mainly eats the dung of other animals
References
Bothma, J., P. Du, J. Teer. 1977. Reproduction and productivity in South Texas cottontail rabbits. Mammalia , 41/3: 253-281.
Chapman, J., G. Ceballos. 1990. Rabbits, hares, and pikas: status survey and conservation action plan . Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.
Chapman, J., J. Litvaitis. 2003. Eastern Cottontail: Sylvilagus floridanus and allies: Wild Mammals of North America: Biology, Management, and Conservation . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Chapman, J. 1982. Latitude and Gestation Period in New World Rabbits. The American Naturalist , 124/3: 442-445.
Lee, D., R. Pfau, L. Ammerman. 2010. Taxonomic status of the Davis Mountains cottontail, Sylvilagus robustus, revealed by amplified fragment length polymorphism. Journal of Mammalogy , 91/6: 1473-1483.
Lee, E. 2000. "Sylvilagus floridanus" (On-line). Penn State New Kensington Species Page. Accessed April 01, 2012 at http://www.psu.edu/dept/nkbiology/naturetrail/speciespages/cottontail.htm. .
MacDonald, D. 2001. Sylvilagus. Pp. 457-460 in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mammals , Vol. 1/1, 3rd Edition. London: Oxford University Press.
Nowak, R. 1999. Walker’s Mammals of the World, Sixth ed . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Ruedas, L., A. Smith. 2011. "Sylvilagus robustus" (On-line). IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Accessed April 01, 2012 at http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/41310/0. .
Ruedas, L. 1998. Systematics of Sylvilagus Gray (Lagomorpha: Leporidae) from Southwestern North America. Journal of Mammalogy , 79/4: 1355-1378.
Schmidly, D. 1977. Mammals of the Trans-Pecos . College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.
Schmidly, D., W. Davis. 1994. The Mammals of Texas . Austin, TX: Texas Park and Wildlife Department.
Smith, A. 2008. Conservation of Endangered Lagomorphs . Heidelberg: Springer Verlag.
Vestal, A. 2005. Genetic Variation in the Davis Mountain Cottontail (Sylvilagus robustus). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses , 1/1: 1-71.