HABITAT SUITABILITY STUDY FOR THE CONSERVATION OF THE VOLCANO RABBIT (ROMEROLAGUS-DIAZI)

1. The endangered Mexican volcano rabbit (Romerolagus diazi) habitat r elationship was investigated. Data, obtained from 137 sampling units i n 14 patches of the geographical distribution areas of the rabbit, inc luded information on floristic composition, vegetation structure, terr ain characteristics and human activities. The abundance of the volcano rabbit was measured in 685 subsampling units by pellet-counts and est imations of pellet-coverage. 2. Two questions have been addressed in t his paper: what is a good indicator of habitat type and which are the habitat factors that explain best the distribution of the volcano rabb it? 3. Thirteen plant communities were identified. Terrain and landsca pe units were distinguished through aerial photograph interpretation a nd were verified in the field. By means of classical (parametric and n on-parametric) and multivariate (Canonical Correspondence Analysis) st atistical analyses, the most suitable, suitable and unsuitable habitat classes were detected. 4. The results indicated that plant communitie s (F=4,14; P <0.0001) and landscape units (F=7,29; P <0.001) were adeq uate levels to distinguish habitat types for the rabbit. 5. Plant comm unities of Festuca tolucensis and Trisetum altijugum-Festuca tolucensi s attained the largest abundance of rabbits, followed by the communiti es Muhlenbergia quadridentata-Pinus hartwegii, Festuca tolucensis-Pinu s hartwegii and Pinus sp.-Alnus firmifolia. The abundances of the volc ano rabbit in the remaining plant communities were significantly less than in the communities mentioned above. 6. These results suggest that the volcano rabbit shows strong preferences for subalpine habitat typ es. 7. Soil moisture (r=-0.840), altitude (r=-0.756), grazing (r=-0.42 3) and burning (r=0.494) correlated significantly with the distributio n and abundance of the volcano rabbit. 8. These results are discussed in light of their role in the conservation of the volcano rabbit.