Rabbits (Genus Sylvilagus) of Nicaragua

Authors

Terry L. Yates, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
Hugh H. Genoways, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
J. Knox Jones Jr., Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas

Date of this Version

January 1979

Comments

Published in Mammalia, vol. 43, no. 1, 1979. Copyright © 1979 Yates, Genoways, and Knox Jones, Jr. Used by permission.

Abstract

The rabbits (genus Sylvilagus) of Nicaragua are herein reviewed systematically. Geographic and nongeographic variation has been assessed based on examination of 124 museum specimens constituting 28 samples of Sylvilagus floridanus from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, and 15 samples of S. brasiliensis from Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Morphological features of the skin and skull were analyzed using various univariate and multivariate statistical techniques. Analysis of geographic variation in S. floridanus indicates that rabbits of this species in Nicaragua are referable to the subspecies S. f. costaricensis, rather than to S. f. hondurensis as previously believed. Based on our assessment of geographic variation in S. brasiliensis, there appears to be only one subspecies in Nicaragua, S. b. gabbi.