The desert cottontail ( Sylvilagus audubonii ), also known as cottontail Audubon , is the New World cottontail rabbit, and a member of the Leporidae family. Unlike European rabbits, they do not form a system of social channels, but compared to some other leporid, they are very tolerant of others around them.
Cottontails spawned their gear in burrows emptied by other mammals. They sometimes cool off, or take shelter in shallow scratches that create their own artificial depression, using their front paws like a rear hoe. They are usually inactive in the middle of the day, but can be observed foraging in the morning, and in the afternoon. Cottontails are rarely found in burrows for food on windy days, as the wind interferes with their ability to hear approaching predators, their primary defense mechanisms.
The dental formula for Sylvilagus audubonii is 2.0.3.3 1.0.3.3 = 28. All species under the Leporidae family have the same tooth formula.
Video Desert cottontail
Age
The age of a cottontail that reaches the average adult age is less than two years, depending on its location. Unfortunately for cottontail, almost every local carnivore is bigger or faster than lagomorph is its predator. Some predators, like snakes for example, are familiar with the area inhabited by cottontails, and can catch and eat young as they please; mother can not keep the trash. Although cottontails are very sexually active, and married couples have several children throughout the year, some young people survive to adulthood. Those who survived grew rapidly and grew fully at three months.
Maps Desert cottontail
Description
The desert cottontail is very similar in appearance to European rabbits, although its ears are larger and more often perpendicular. This is social among his friends, often gathered in small groups to feed. Like all cottontail rabbits, desert cottontails have grayish brown tails with wide white tips and white undersides, which are visible on the run. It also has white fur on the abdomen.
Adults have a length of 36 to 42 cm (14 to 17 inches) and weigh in the range of 700 to 1,200 g (1.5 to 2.6 pounds). The tail is 30 to 60 mm (1.2 to 2.4 inches), the ear has a length of 6 to 9 cm (2.4 to 3.5 inches) and a large hindfeet, about 7 to 9 cm (2.8 to 3, 5 inches). There is little sexual dimorphism, but females tend to be larger than men, but have a much smaller home range, about 1 acre (4,000 m 2 ) compared to about 15 acres (61,000 m 2 ) for men.
Distribution and habitat
The desert cottontail is found throughout the Western United States from eastern Montana to western Texas, and in Northern and Central Mexico. Its eastern distance extends almost to the Great Plains. To the west of its range extends to central Nevada and southern California and Baja California, touching the Pacific Ocean. It is found at an altitude of up to 1,830 m (6,000 ft). It is particularly associated with dry grasslands near the desert in southwestern America, although it is also found in less dry habitats such as the pinyon-juniper forest. It is also commonly found in riparian zones in dry areas.
Behavior
Diet and feed
The desert cottontail mainly eats meat and grass, which is 80% of its diet. It also consumes many other plants, including cactus. They also eat the leaves and the mesquite peas, barks, falling fruit, juicy spices of prickly pears and bushes. Rarely need to drink, get most of the water from the plants being eaten or from the dew. Due to seasons and changes in moisture conditions of their habitats, cottontails adjust their diet based on many influencing factors that influence seasonal vegetation changes (ie moisture content, abundance, nutritional value, etc.). Like most lagomorphs, it is coprophagic, re-ingesting and chewing its own waste to extract the nutrients as effectively as possible.
The desert cottontail, like all the cottontails, ate with all fours. He can only use his nose to move and adjust the position of food placed directly in front of his front paws on the ground. The cottontail turns the food with its nose to find the cleanest part of the vegetation (free of sand and the inedible parts) to start eating. The only time a cottontail uses its front paw to allow for a meal is when the herbs are above his head above the living plant. The cottontail then lifts the claws to bend the branches and bring the food within reach.
Thermoregulation
Due to variable temperature living conditions, desert cottontails must be sufficient thermoregulators to minimize water loss during the summer and require a shady environment from their environment to conduct evaporative water loss through thermal heat transfer. In the open desert area, they can survive for a short time with very high temperatures of about 45 ° C and have a large evaporative water loss capacity of about 1.5% of body mass/hour, although cottontails can last longer in an ideal environment with shaded area. To cope with the evaporative heat loss, they do breathlessly and undergo a change in the production of their basal metabolic rate in relation to the environmental temperature of the environment. The desert cottontails ears make up 14% of their body size and can help with thermoregulation.
Predators and threats
Many desert animals prey on cottontails, including birds of prey, mustelids, coyotes, jungle cats, lynx, wolves, mountain lions, snakes, weasels, humans, and even squirrels, should a cottontail be injured or benign from illness. Foreign species, such as cats and dogs, are also known as predators, and are also a threat. Native Americans hunt them for meat but also use their fur and skin. It is also considered a game species, hence it is hunted for sport. The normal behavior of a cottontail desert when it finds a potential predator is frozen in place in an attempt to avoid being detected. If he determines that he is in danger, he will escape from the area by jumping in a zigzag pattern. Cottontails can reach speeds of more than 30 km/h (19 mph). When defending against small predators or other desert cottontails, it will nudge its nose, or slap with its front legs, usually preceded by a straight-up jump as high as two feet when threatened or shaken.
Habitat loss due to land clearing and livestock grazing can greatly affect desert cottontail populations. Human-induced fires are also a potential threat to desert bull populations. Another factor is its competition with black-tailed jackrabbit ( Lepus californicus) , as both have the same diet, and share the same habitat. When the season has been very dry, there is less plant life to go around. The cottontail is not afraid of the rabbit rabbit, in fact jackrabbit is very nervous and will retreat from the confrontation in many ways. However, black-tailed jackrabbit is much larger, and consumes more food at mealtimes.
Weather and food supplies
A very wet winter means an increase in plant life in the spring, and thus increases cottontail populations. However, if wet winters are followed by very dry summers, fast-growing plant life due to extreme desert summer temperatures, and can have the opposite effect, and can lead to hunger for cottontails that are now densely populated.
Status and preservation
Since 1996, desert cottontail has been rated at least the IUCN Red List; it does not appear on the list of countries or federal species that are endangered. The desert cottontail is considered a game species in the United States by individual state wildlife bodies. It is also not considered threatened by the state game agencies in the United States, as is common in most of its territory in Mexico. None of the twelve subspecies are considered to be under threat and no new conservation measures are required.
References
External links
- "Sylvilagus audubonii". Integrated Taxonomy Information System . Retrieved February 10 2006 .
- USA Desert Page in desert cottontail
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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