Teporingo, the Rabbit That Lives Among Mexico’s Volcanoes

The teporingo is found only in Mexico, and its home is a very particular part of the country, the high mountains of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, where some of Mexico’s best-known volcanoes rise, including Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl, as well as other mountain ranges such as Ajusco-Chichinautzin, and although it historically lived around Nevado de Toluca as well, its range is now much more limited, it is usually found between 3,000 and 3,700 meters (9,800–12,100 feet) above sea level, right where the pine forest begins to open up and large stretches of grassland appear, a landscape that can seem almost empty when you hike through it, but is actually home to a species that has adapted to these mountains over thousands of years, the problem is that its habitat has been significantly reduced by habitat loss and fragmentation, human activity, and other changes to the landscape, which is why the teporingo is considered an endangered species and why Mexican researchers have been studying its populations and working to protect its remaining habitat for decades, including protected areas such as Iztaccíhuatl-Popocatépetl-Zoquiapan National Park, so when you hike through these mountains, you’re not just walking through a volcanic landscape, you’re entering one of the few places in the world where this little rabbit still lives

The teporingo also has habits that make it even harder to spot, it is most active during the early morning and late afternoon, while during the busiest hours of the day it usually stays hidden among the grass or inside small burrows, it feeds mainly on the grasses that grow at these high elevations and tends to move in small groups, which means that even when one is nearby, it’s incredibly easy to walk right past without noticing, in fact, for someone visiting Iztaccíhuatl for the first time, it can be surprising to think that such a small animal can live in such an open and cold landscape, but that low vegetation is exactly what provides it with food, shelter, and places to hide, and because the species has a relatively slow reproductive cycle and small litters, recovering its populations is not something that can happen quickly when parts of its habitat are lost

If you’ve hiked along the lower slopes of Iztaccíhuatl, you’ve probably seen the grass growing between the pine forest and the rocky areas, but you may not have known that this is also where the teporingo lives, also known as the zacatuche or volcano rabbit, one of Mexico’s smallest mammals and a species endemic to these mountains, so in this article we’re going to take a closer look at this little rabbit, where it lives, what it eats, why it’s so difficult to spot, and what’s happening to its population in Mexico’s volcanic mountains

The teporingo, whose scientific name is Romerolagus diazi, is a very small rabbit that only lives in the mountains of central Mexico and was first described by science in 1893, although for those of us who hike in this area, it’s easier to recognize it by its appearance, it has a compact body, short legs, small rounded ears, and a tail so tiny that it’s barely visible, while its dark brown or almost black fur helps it blend into the grass and volcanic rocks, exactly the kind of landscape you’ll find as you hike up the slopes of Iztaccíhuatl, it really is a tiny animal, with adults measuring only 26 to 31 centimeters and weighing around 450 to 600 grams, roughly the weight of a half-liter bottle of water, and although it belongs to the same group as rabbits and hares, the teporingo is unique in the world because it is the only species in the Romerolagus genus, so when we talk about the teporingo, we’re not simply talking about a small rabbit, but about a species you can only find in these mountains of Mexico

There is another part of the story that connects the teporingo to something much older than any scientific study, the image of the rabbit on the Moon appears in different traditions among the peoples of central Mexico, and one of the best-known stories is connected to Quetzalcóatl, according to the legend, one day the god was traveling across the Earth disguised as a man and after walking for a long time he became hungry and tired, as night fell, he came across a small rabbit that was eating and when he asked what it was doing there, the rabbit offered to share its food with him, even though it knew there would not be enough to feed a human, Quetzalcóatl was moved by the rabbit’s generosity and, as a way of honoring it, he picked it up, raised it toward the sky, and left its image on the Moon so that everyone would remember its kindness, that is why when we look at a full moon and see the shape of a rabbit, we are seeing an image that has been part of stories told in Mexico for generations, and although the legend does not specifically refer to the teporingo as a species, it is hard not to think of this little rabbit when you hike through the mountains where it lives, especially because the teporingo is native to these lands and has lived among the volcanoes of central Mexico long before we ever gave them their names

Maybe the next time you hike among the volcanoes of Mexico, you’ll look a little more closely at the grass, because somewhere among these mountains, a teporingo could be hiding, and seeing one in the wild is one of those experiences you simply cannot plan, you can hike through these landscapes for hours and never see one, or you might get lucky and watch one cross the trail in front of you for just a few seconds, if you want to experience Iztaccíhuatl and other mountains in Mexico beyond the places you’ll find in a typical travel guide, explore some of the routes we hike with our local guides