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Demography, density, and survival of an endemic and near threatened cottontailSylvilagus cunicularius in central Mexico

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Abstract

A 3-year live trapping investigation was carried out in a temperate forest in central Tlaxcala, México from 2002 to 2004. During a total of 504 trap nights, 87Silvilagus cunicularius Waterhouse, 1848 individuals were captured and marked, and age-specific survival models using demographic parameters were tested using the JOLLYAGE program. We evaluated population density of this species over a 1-year period. The age structure of the population varied among years, and the proportion of adults was relatively constant among years, whereas the proportion of juvenile showed high fluctuations. The sex ratio of juveniles that were recaptured as adults, did not differ from unity neither did the sex ratio for adults. We found no sex bias among cottontails during all 3 years of the study. When data for both sexes were combined, mean survival probability of juveniles was lower than that of adults. Although our line transect counts showed a mean density of 27 ± 5.4 individuals per km2, the obtained results from trapping suggests that this species is low in abundance at La Malinche. Further studies are needed to evaluate demographical aspects of this species at different protected and unprotected areas to obtain robust information about their status.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Ecología del Comportamiento, Centro Tlaxcala de Biología de la Conducta, UAT-UNAM, 90070, Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, México

    Jessyca González, Carlos Lara & Jorge Vázquez

  2. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510, Mexico, D.F., México

    Margarita Martínez-Gómez

Authors
  1. Jessyca González
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  2. Carlos Lara
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  3. Jorge Vázquez
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  4. Margarita Martínez-Gómez
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carlos Lara.

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Associate editor was Joseph F. Merritt

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González, J., Lara, C., Vázquez, J. et al. Demography, density, and survival of an endemic and near threatened cottontailSylvilagus cunicularius in central Mexico. Acta Theriol 52, 299–305 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03194226

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03194226

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