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The volcano rabbit—a shrinking distribution and a threatened habitat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2009

J. Hoth
Affiliation:
Laboratories de Biogeografia, Departamento de Biologia, Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM, Mexico DF 04510.
A. Velazquez
Affiliation:
Laboratories de Biogeografia, Departamento de Biologia, Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM, Mexico DF 04510.
F. J. Romero
Affiliation:
Laboratories de Biogeografia, Departamento de Biologia, Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM, Mexico DF 04510.
L. Leon
Affiliation:
Museo de Zoologia, Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM 70–399, Mexico DF 04510.
M. Aranda
Affiliation:
INIREB Chiapas, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.
D. J. Bell
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7TJ, UK (to whom reprint requests should be sent).
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The first systematic search for the volcano rabbit, a Mexican endemic, found no evidence of the species outside the central region of the transverse neovolcanic axis around Mexico City, and reveals that the rabbit has now disappeared from areas of this central zone where it has been reported in the recent past. It depends for its survival on the pine forest—bunch grass ecosystem, and this is being destroyed by conversion to agriculture, over-grazing, fire-burns, poor forestry management and encroaching property developments. The authors make recommendations for the immediate protection of the remaining areas of core habitat and for further research.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 1987

References

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