The Holzner cottontail is a recently recognized rabbit of Arizona’s mountains, split off from the wider cottontail complex only in the last few years. Because the name is so new, the 7,738 Arizona records now attributed to it are still being sorted out, and the tally likely sweeps in observations that belong to its lowland cousins as the taxonomy settles.
A cottontail of the high forests
Where most cottontails are animals of desert scrub and grassland, this one is tied to cool montane conifer forest, living in the Madrean Sky Islands well above the elevations its lowland relatives occupy. Its real stronghold is the wooded higher country, so the desert-heavy county totals, led by Maricopa and Pima, say more about where people record rabbits than about where this montane species actually concentrates. Look for it instead in the forested ranges and along their shrubby edges, where it browses grasses, forbs, and the leaves, twigs, and bark of mountain shrubs.
A name still finding its edges
For most of its history this rabbit was lumped with the common cottontails and carried no separate name at all. Genetic and morphological work has since set it apart as a distinct montane form, and the occurrence record is only now catching up. Treat its Arizona map as a work in progress: the species is real and forest-bound, but the numbers attached to the new name will keep shifting as records are re-examined.
Status in Arizona
Holzner cottontail is native to Arizona, and NatureServe ranks it S5, secure, statewide. That secure rank doesn’t fully settle the question; it reflects how widespread cottontails in general are across Arizona’s mountains, more than a confirmed picture of this specific form’s numbers on its own.
