22 November 2024

ID help for Holzner vs. Desert Cottontail in SE Arizona

Hey folks,

Still sorting photos from an incredible monsoon trip to the sky islands of SE Arizona over the summer. We had great luck with herps and birds, and pretty decent luck with mammals, though no cats this go around. I’m looking for a little info on the cottontail in the attached photo. It was near Soldier Falls Trailhead, just east of Rincon Peak. Something about it just doesn’t look like a regular Desert Cottontail, but I could be imagining it.

Cheers

 

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withalligators
Wildlife biologist, dummy, pessimistic optimist.
Post Views: 164

2 Comments

  • 30 November 2024
    Evan

    I don’t know how to identify Holzner, but it does seem to be missing the blackish eartips that Desert Cottontail is supposed to show.

  • 6 December 2024
    dpsiminski

    In 2021, Victor E. Diersing and Don E. Wilson published a paper in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington after having thoroughly examined the taxonomy of the mountain-inhabiting cottontails of the southwestern US and northwestern Mexico. One of the outcomes of this study was that what we had been calling the Eastern Cottontail and the Robust Cottontail in their study area is a species of its own, the Holzner Cottontail, Sylvilagus holzneri.

    In SE AZ, the Holzner Cottontail primarily occupies oak savanna and oak-pine woodland in the mountains but does range minimally into other bordering habitats. Desert Cottontails primarily occupy desert scrub and semi-desert grassland of the valleys between these mountains but do range widely outside of these habitats and generally into the mountains. So, they can and do overlap in the field, but they have their habitat preferences.

    So, when trying to identify a Holzner Cottontail in the field or from a photo think of Eastern Cottontail size and proportions. Holzner Cottontails are generally larger overall than a Desert Cottontail. The head and ears of a Holzner look proportionally small compared to the large body. The Desert Cottontail is small and proportionally has big ears (sometimes very big) and a small body.

    ID is frequently not possible in the field or from a photo, but your cottontail is a Holzner.

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