Tapeti

Tapeti
File:Sylvilagus brasiliensis meridensis (Sylvilagus meridensis) - Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Giacomo Doria - Genoa, Italy - DSC02875.JPG
File:AudubonMarshHareS.jpg
Hand colored stone lithograph, by John James Audubon
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Lagomorpha
Family:	Leporidae
Genus:	Sylvilagus
Species:	S. brasiliensis
Binomial name
Sylvilagus brasiliensis (Linnaeus, 1758)
File:Tapeti area.png
Tapeti range

The tapeti (Sylvilagus brasiliensis), also known as the Brazilian cottontail or forest cottontail, is a cottontail rabbit species. Its range extends from southern Mexico to northern Argentina. It is small to medium-sized with a small, dark tail, short hind feet, and short ears. It is classified as "Least Concern" by the IUCN.

Taxonomy

The species was first described scientifically by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, published in 1753. The type locality was in Pernambuco, Brazil. In addition to its vernacular name "tapeti", it commonly known as the "forest cottontail" or the "Brazilian cottontail".

Description

Tapeti is a small- to medium-sized rabbit. It has a head-body length of 320 mm (13 in), a tail that is 21 mm (0.83 in), hind feet measuring 71 mm (2.8 in), ears that are 54 mm (2.1 in) (measured from notch to tip), and it weighs an average of 934 grams (32.9 oz). The color of its back is brown with a speckled appearance (resulting from the black hairs tips), and it has a rufous spot on its neck. Its belly and tail underside are also rufous. It has six mammae. Two different karyotypes have been reported for this species: 2n=36, FN=68; and 2n=40, FN=76.

It is a solitary, nocturnal animal, usually seen after nightfall or before dawn, feeding on grass and browse. It has also been recorded eating Harrya chromapes, a bolete mushroom. It is found in forested habitats, close to swamps and along river edges, and in disturbed areas, such as gardens and plantations.

Habitat, distribution, and ecology

File:Sylvilagus brasiliensis1.jpg

In Brazil

The tapeti occurs in tropical rain forests, deciduous forests, and second growth forests in Mexico and Central America, as well as pastures surrounding forest habitat. Its range extends from southern Tamaulipas in Mexico, south along the eastern coast of Mexico, through Guatemala, possibly El Salvador, Honduras, eastern Nicaragua, eastern Costa Rica, and Panama. It occurs through the northern half of South America (except at high altitudes), including Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, northern Argentina, and much of Brazil. The southern tip of its known distribution occurs in Tucuman province. It occurs at elevations from sea level to 4,800 m (15,700 ft). It is the only leporid species found in most of its range.

Rabbits build nests built of dry grasses above the ground to rear their young. They have a central chamber and three or four smaller chambers at the end of a corridor. The gestation period varies with the geographical location. Rabbits in Chiapas, Mexico gestate for about 28 days, and have three to eight offspring, while rabbits in the Páramos of the Andes gestate for 44 days, and have an average litter size of 1.2. Both of these populations breed year-round.

Like its California relative, the brush rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmani), the tapeti is a natural reservoir for the myxoma virus. This relationships was discovered by Brazilian physician Henrique de Beaurepaire Rohan Aragão in the 1940s. The virus causes a benign cutaneous fibroma in its hosts, but it causes the lethal disease myxomatosis, in European rabbits.