Dice's Cottontail

Open encyclopedia reference

Dice's cottontail (Sylvilagus dicei) is a species of cottontail rabbit that is native to the Cordillera de Talamanca mountain range in Costa Rica and Panama. It is a large cottontail rabbit with black and brown fur, dull white undersides, a brown patch of fur on its throat and a small, barely visible black tail. It is found at elevations up to 3,800 metres (12,500 ft) and resides in páramo grasslands and cloud forest habitats.

This cottontail is closely related to the common tapeti, a widespread South American rabbit it was once thought to be a subspecies of. The Central American tapeti, a similar-looking rabbit species, is also closely related to Dice's cottontail. Bamboo is a staple of the cottontail's diet, which includes grasses and other leafy vegetation. Its main predators are carnivores, including coyotes and tayras. Increased urbanization and agricultural developments have degraded lowland habitats, leading Dice's cottontail to be forced to higher elevations. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers it to be a vulnerable species, and Costa Rica has banned hunting of the animal since 2012.

Wikipedia contributors, Dice's cottontail; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T06:02:31.108287+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Sylvilagus dicei Harris, 1932

Name authority

Harris, 1932

Common name

Dice'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.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
11. orderLagomorpha Brandt, 1855
12. familyLeporidae Fischer, 1817
13. genusSylvilagus Gray, 1867
14. speciesSylvilagus dicei Harris, 1932

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Sylvilagus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 43 records assigned to Leporidae.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

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.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=625367 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:53N8W. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.