What an exciting time! A rabbit species that was thought to be extinct has recently been spotted in Mexico. Retired wildlife biologist Franz Camenzind shares his excitement surrounding the surprise appearance of the 'extinct' rabbit.
'Extinct' Rabbit Spotted In Mexico
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Cowboy State Daily shares that the excitement over this 'extinct' rabbit is similar to the excitement people felt in 1981. During that time, a similar situation occurred. However, instead of rabbits, it was ferrets. Black-footed ferrets were thought to be extinct as well but then they were spotted near Meeteetse, Wyoming, leaving excitement in their wake.
When speaking to Cowboy State Daily, Camenzind shared his excitement. "It does happen," he confirmed, "and it is exciting." However in addition to that excitement comes a mountain of work to do. The wildlife biologist admitted that often times after finding an animal that was thought to be gone forever, like this 'extinct' rabbit, scientists don't know what the next steps are.
That is because there are so many questions that need to be answered. Camenzind shared some of those questions with the outlet. "They have to figure out how many there are, how big is the rabbit population? What are the threats to them and where to go from here," he says.
Finally An Answer To The Rabbit Quest
This 'extinct' rabbit is known as the Omiltemi cottontail rabbit and experts believed it to be gone for a long time. However some locals began sharing rumors of sightings and ecologists set off to investigate. Camenzind shared that typically when a long lost species is found it is usually in a remote area. Additionally, he shared that locals knowing about it before ecologists is also fairly common.
He stated, "It's sometimes a situation where the locals may know about it, but there's no official documentation of the species." While many thought these ecologists were going on a wild goose (or wild rabbit?) chase, the dedicated team never gave up. Finally, five years after setting out on their initial search, they found evidence. They now have a video of this 'extinct' rabbit in a conifer forest.
