biology research paper

Cottontail Rabbit

Chenao Jiang

09/13/2014

Native species refers to animal or plant species thriving in the ecology they evolved from, where exotic species refers to plant or animal species living outside their ecological zone, which existence in the present ecology is as a result of human activity. Ecology on the other hand refers to interactions between the living organisms and their environment. This means that, there is usually a change in interaction when a new species is introduced in a new ecological system. The change in interaction affects both the introduced species and the indigenous species. The term exotic species culminates from European exploration, colonization and settlement outside their continent. They carried with them plants and animals originally thriving in their original homeland to their new settlement areas.

This paper focuses on animal species that can be found from Canada to South America and, in the United States, from the East Coast to the Great Plains and New England. Cottontail rabbit is the common name of a group of rabbits with distinctive "cotton ball" tail for which they are named. They fall under genus Sylvilagus (Hoffman and Smith, 2005).

According to nature ranking status, the species identified above is endangered calling for a special concern of becoming extinct. There is little recorded information about this species due to dominant species in its ecological system. There are many explanation for this. For example, it has been shown that the habitat where the Cottontail rabbit survive is being destroyed. In addition, the other species are more adaptive hence this particular species is threatened by habitat loss. These other species sharing the same habitat with Cottontail rabbit include squirrel and chipmunk (Hoffman and Smith, 2005). Sources indicate that these other species have a competitive advantage when it comes to eating capacities. For example, it has been shown that the two species mentioned eat sitting up on their hind legs, and can hold food with their front paws while spinning it in circles to consume it quickly. To this end, hairy sunflower species is as a stress of overcrowding of its habitat.

Cottontail rabbit is also threatened by the habitation loss with evolution of geographical time on the aspects of physical and climatic processes experienced over the years. These aspect cuts across climatic change in soil composition due to erosion and other soil processes and the species interaction with other species that has resulted to overcrowding in the ecological system. Cottontail rabbits require a habitat of young trees with plenty of grasses, shrubs and brush, i.e. a young or immature forest (Hoffman and Smith, 2005). However, in New England, for example, much of the land where the species exists has been turned into mature forest, with large, tall trees and not as much ground-level undergrowth (Hoffman and Smith, 2005). This has discouraged the population of rabbits.

In the aspect of the loss of prey base, hairy sunflower has lost the prey base to adaptive squirrel and chipmunk. These species can easily adapt and have a better defensive mechanism as well as eating capacities. The fact that Cottontail rabbit depends on its hearing also make it less adaptive compared to other species. The increased stress further reduces the likelihood of survival.

The species has also suffered increased competition from the native species in the ecological system. Competition comes in terms of struggle for access to shared food such as bushes and twigs. For the protection and conservation of this endangered species, measures should be put in place to protect the species ecosystem. This is through promotion of grasslands and oak savanna and oak barrens. This would lay the foundation for perpetuating prairie openings that maintain habitat for this species.

References

Hoffman, R. S. and Smith, A. T. (2005). "Genus Sylvilagus". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 207–211. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494