Rabbit Feared Extinct Spotted For The First Time In 130 Years, And It’s Feisty

The Omiltemi cottontail rabbit was thought to have been lost to science since the early 1900s. Last seen 130 years ago, the future looked bleak for this little brown rabbit, but an expedition in the Sierra Madre del Sur Mountain Range in Mexico has changed all that. Not only did the team successfully capture the rare rabbit on camera, but they saw it in seven of the 10 areas surveyed, painting a brighter picture than anyone could have hoped for.

Great news for Re:wild, a conservation initiative that’s dedicated to the Search For Lost Species. The cottontail is their 13th rediscovered species, with other success stories including a tap-dancing spider and a rockin’ yellow-crested helmetshrike, and they have many more species in their sights.

We had no evidence of the Omiltemi rabbit, leading us to believe the species was extinct.

Alberto Almazán-Catalán

Those successes don’t always come easy, however, and the five-year search for the Omiltemi cottontail certainly provided its own challenges.

“At the beginning of the project, it was frustrating not to be able to work in some localities or ejidos of the state, mainly for security reasons, even in the town of Omiltemi we could only look for the rabbit in the areas destined for agriculture and livestock, and we could not access the most preserved sites,” expedition leader, ecologist, and president of Instituto para el Manejo y Conservación de la Biodiversidad (INMACOB) Alberto Almazán-Catalán told IFLScience. “Likewise, the first stage lasted a year and a half, in which we had no evidence of the Omiltemi rabbit, leading us to believe the species was extinct.”

Almazán-Catalán was leading the expedition team in Mexico, searching 10 different areas in the Sierra Madre del Sur Mountain Range. Through interviews, deploying drones, and laying camera traps, the team hoped to find some sign that the cottontail was still alive, and eventually their hard work paid off. By the end of the expedition, the rabbits had been sighted in seven of those 10 locations.

“After observing and analyzing its morphological characteristics, we compared them with those mentioned in its original description, and later we realized that it was Sylvilagus insonus (Omiltemi rabbit),” said Almazán-Catalán. “At that time I was happy to have found a species that was practically extinct to science. However, during the expeditions we were able to observe that there are numerous populations in some regions of the Sierra Madre del Sur of the state of Guerrero, which made me even happier.”

Despite being a small species, it is strong, agile, and territorial

Alberto Almazán-Catalán

To the untrained eye, the Omiltemi cottontail may appear like most other rabbits, but they actually look totally different from regular cottontails to those who know what they’re looking for. Despite being called cottontails, they don’t have white tails but small black ones. They’re also smaller in size and have smaller ears, but don’t let that fool you. These bunnies mean business.

“Despite being a small species, it is strong, agile, and territorial,” said Almazán-Catalán. “We observe specimens climbing walls with 80% inclination, with heights of up to 5 or 6 meters [16.4 or 19.7 feet]; they fiercely protect small territories from rabbits of their own species (Sylvilagus insonus) as well as the Mexican cottontail (Sylvilagus cunicularius), the other species that is distributed throughout the state of Guerrero.”

A big return for a small but boisterous bunny? I feel a Pixar movie in the making.

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