Unique reproductive traits of the Amami rabbit Pentalagus furnessi : an endangered endemic species from southwestern Jap
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Unique reproductive traits of the Amami rabbit Pentalagus furnessi: an endangered endemic species from southwestern Japan Futoshi Hamada 1 & Taku Mizuta 2,3 Received: 9 May 2019 / Accepted: 7 April 2020 # Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Białowieża, Poland 2020
Abstract The Amami rabbit Pentalagus furnessi is an endangered leporid species and is endemic to the two subtropical islands (AmamiOshima Island and Tokunoshima Island) in the Ryukyu Archipelago in southwestern Japan. In total, 11 breeding burrows of this rabbit were detected from 1994 to 2017 in Amami-Oshima Island. Breeding was observed from November to December in most cases and in May in one case. The litter size was one in most cases, except for one burrow which had two offspring. Two burrows were observed during the entire delivery and nursing period for two different years, and the duration of breeding (from estimated date of delivery to the date when the offspring leaves the burrow) in these two burrows was 38 and 43 days. The mother visited the burrow periodically on alternate nights, and the duration of maternal visit was relatively short. The time at which the mother visited the burrow became progressively earlier in the night as the offspring became older. Although some aspects of breeding behaviour are similar to those of other lagomorphs, the Amami rabbit has an extremely small litter size with few breeding seasons in a year, resulting in the lowest fecundity rate among the lagomorph species. This unique reproductive trait is considered to have evolved in the small subtropical island environment that has a relatively stable climate with no native carnivorous mammals. Keywords Amami-Oshima Island . Breeding ecology . K-strategy . Lagomorphs . Pentalagus furnessi . Reproductive traits
Introduction The evolution of life-history strategies is a major element in evolutionary ecology. Reproductive traits, such as offspring number and size and number of litters in a year, are important components of the life history strategies, which affect lifetime reproductive success (Stearns 1992). Therefore, comparing the reproductive traits of several species in a common taxonomic group is a fascinating approach to understand the selective forces causing variations in the life history in the said group (Virgós et al. 2006). Lagomorpha is one of the commonly explored taxa, with several species of the group being close to humans as pets, * Taku Mizuta [email protected] 1
Research Institute for Ecological Studies of the Amami Rabbit, Saiwai-cho 17-2, Naze, Amami-City, Kagoshima 894-0025, Japan
2
Amami Wildlife Conservation Center, Koshinohata 551, Ongachi, Yamato-son, Oshima-gun, Kagoshima 894-3104, Japan
3
Present address: Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, Konoyama 115, Abiko-city, Chiba 270-1145, Japan
pests, hunting targets, invasive species and rare and endangered species (Chapman and Flux 1990; Alves et al. 2008). Some studies have compared the reproductive traits of lagomorphs (Swihart 1984; Virgós et al.
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