Status of Desert Cottontails (Sylvilagus audubonii) in Arizona, 1955-2020
2022
Brown, David E. | Altemus, Maria | Babb, Randall D. | Baldwin, Kerry | Hajek, Karen E.
More than 60 years of survey and hunt data indicate declining trends in Arizona's desert cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii) populations. Survey numbers, hunter participation, harvests, and hunt success for this species after 1990 are considerably less than prior to the 1980s. Summer surveys conducted in the 1950s and repeated in 2019 and 2020 showed that populations were not uniform and related to winter precipitation amounts (r²=0.71, p=0.07). Although one population in 2020 was at an historic low, others were as robust as in the 1950s. Although declines in hunter numbers may be due to sociological factors, the reasons for declining trends in cottontail survey numbers and hunt success are more difficult to evaluate. Precipitation amounts and temperature data suggest that population declines might have been caused by increased mortality due to climate change, increases in predator populations, and/or the presence of disease.
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