NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Audubon's Cottontail
Sylvilagus audubonii (Baird, 1858)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The desert cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii), also known as Audubon's cottontail, is a New World cottontail rabbit, and a member of the family Leporidae. Unlike the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), they do not form social burrow systems, but compared with some other leporids, they are extremely tolerant of other individuals in their vicinity.
Cottontails give birth to their kits in burrows vacated by other mammals. They sometimes cool off, or take refuge in scratched out shallow created depressions of their own making, using their front paws like a back hoe. They are not usually active in the middle of the day, but can be observed foraging in the early morning, and early evening. Cottontails are rarely found out of their burrows looking for food on windy days, because the wind interferes with their ability to hear approaching predators, their primary defense mechanism.
Wikipedia contributors, Desert cottontail; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:42:00.856883+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Sylvilagus audubonii (Baird, 1858)
- Name authority
- (Baird, 1858)
- Common name
- Audubon's Cottontail
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Lagomorpha
- Family
- Leporidae
- Genus
- Sylvilagus
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
- subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
- infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
- orderLagomorpha Brandt, 1855
- familyLeporidae Fischer, 1817
- genusSylvilagus Gray, 1867
- speciesSylvilagus audubonii (Baird, 1858)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Sylvilagus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Andean CottontailSylvilagus andinus (Thomas, 1897) | LeporidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Apollinaris' CottontailSylvilagus apollinaris Thomas, 1920 | LeporidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Cane CutterSylvilagus aquaticus (Bachman, 1837) | LeporidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Mexican CottontailSylvilagus cunicularius (Waterhouse, 1848) | LeporidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Central American Lowland Forest CottontailSylvilagus gabbi (J. A. Allen, 1877) | LeporidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Tres Marias CottontailSylvilagus graysoni (J. A. Allen, 1877) | LeporidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Omilteme CottontailSylvilagus insonus (Nelson, 1904) | LeporidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| San José Brush RabbitSylvilagus mansuetus Nelson, 1907 | LeporidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Dwarf TapetíSylvilagus tapetillus Thomas, 1913 | LeporidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| ConeySylvilagus transitionalis (Bangs, 1895) | LeporidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Barinas Wild RabbitSylvilagus varynaensis Durant & Guevara, 2001 | LeporidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Brush RabbitSylvilagus bachmani (Waterhouse, 1839) | LeporidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
North America
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=180122 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:53N8P. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.