Omilteme cottontail

The Omilteme cottontail, Sylvilagus insonus, also spelled Omiltemi cottontail, is a cottontail rabbit found only in the Mexican state of Guerrero in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountain range. It is a large, nocturnal rabbit with rufous to black fur, long ears and a short tail, and it is restricted to cloud forests at elevations of up to 3,505 metres. Edward William Nelson first identified it in 1904 at Omilteme as Lepus insonus, and it was soon reclassified into Sylvilagus; it is closely related to the Mexican cottontail and the desert cottontail. It is considered one of the most endangered mammals in the world and is known from only a few specimens. No confirmed sightings were recorded from the early 1900s until the 1990s, two individuals were found in 1998, and more were found through the 2020s using camera traps. Poaching and habitat destruction threaten it, and the IUCN once listed it as critically endangered but now treats it as data deficient.