Mexican cottontail

The Mexican cottontail, Sylvilagus cunicularius, is a cottontail rabbit endemic to southern Mexico. It is one of the largest members of the genus Sylvilagus, weighing 1,800 to 2,300 grams on average, and the largest Mexican rabbit. It occupies a wide range of habitats including tropical, temperate and dry deciduous forest, dense shrubland, grassland, and cultivated or otherwise disturbed land. In central Mexico it is common in temperate pine and pine-oak forests with a ground cover of tussocky grasses such as Agrostis, Festuca and Muhlenbergia, while in western Mexico it tends towards drier forest habitats and pastures. Fossils have been found in Mexico and the United States, the oldest in southern Arizona dating to the Pliocene. It is common over its range, and the IUCN classifies it as least concern.