Desert hare

For other species called "desert hare", see Desert hare (disambiguation).

Desert hare
Shughnon District, Tajikistan
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Lagomorpha
Family:	Leporidae
Genus:	Lepus
Species:	L. tibetanus
Binomial name
Lepus tibetanus Waterhouse, 1841
Desert hare range
Synonyms [2]
List Lepus pamirensisA. Günther, 1875 Lepus craspedotisBlanford, 1875 Lepus stoliczkanusBlanford, 1875 Lepus biddulphiBlanford, 1877 Lepus kaschgaricusSatunin, 1907 Lepus zaisanicusSatunin, 1907 Lepus quercerusHollister, 1912

The desert hare (Lepus tibetanus) is a species of hare found in Central Asia, Northwest China, and the western Indian subcontinent. Little is known about this species except that it inhabits grassland and scrub areas of desert and semi-desert. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern."

Taxonomy and etymology

The desert hare was first described by the English naturalist George Robert Waterhouse in 1841, based on notes provided to the Zoological Society of London by Godfrey Vigne. Waterhouse gave it the species name tibetanus based on the region it was found, ^[3] that being Little Tibet (now Baltistan). ^[2] Vigne noted that the species could be distinguished from the similar alpine hare (Lepus timidus) by its larger ears. Waterhouse would go on to note in his description of the species that its pale gray fur, lacking in brown or yellow tints, was unique among the hares, and that compared to other hares, it had a smaller and proportionally narrower skull. ^[3]

Illustration of the desert hare by Joseph Smit, 1879

From 1841 up until the 1930s, the desert hare was considered an independent, monotypic species. Disagreement as to the hare's placement began in 1934, when Heptner attempted to unify the European (L. europaeus), tolai (L. tolai), and desert hares into one species. Ellerman would attempt to place the desert and tolai hares as subspecies of the Cape hare (L. capensis) in 1955. From 1966, a dissenting opinion from Ognev appeared that rejected the original unification of the species in 1934. Analyses in the 1980s attempted to solidify the hares' taxonomy; a study by Luo in 1981 supported the status quo at the time proposed by Ellerman, but the study's methodology was criticized, and a 1989 reevaluation of the data found significant separation between the desert and tolai hares. ^[4] Five subspecies of the desert hare were recognized in the 2005 work Mammal Species of the World , but one of those subspecies, L. tibetanus centrasiaticus, has since been reassigned to the tolai hare. As of 2018, the species is considered monotypic, having no subspecies. ^[1]

Description

The desert hare is a lightly-built species with a small head. It grows to a head-and-body length of between 400 and 480 millimetres (16 and 19 inches) with a tail of 87 to 109 mm (3.4 to 4.3 in). The upper parts are sandy-yellow to drab brown glossed with black, the hip and buttocks area is greyish and the underparts yellowish-white. The eye is surrounded by an area of pale skin and the ears are broad, lined with tufted hair inside and tipped with black. The forefeet are white as are the outer surfaces of the rear legs. The upper side of the tail has a brownish-black stripe. During the winter, the coat becomes thicker and a sandy-grey colour. ^{[5] [6] [7]}

Distribution and habitat

The desert hare is native to Central Asia, its range extending from Afghanistan and northern Pakistan to Mongolia, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Gansu and Inner Mongolia in northern China. It is found at altitudes of up to 3,500 or 4,000 m (11,500 or 13,100 ft) in arid and semi-arid areas, scrubby desert, grassland and steppe. ^[1]

Ecology

In Toli Township, Ürümqi County, Xinjiang, China

The desert hare is herbivorous; its diet includes roots, foliage, stems, berries and seeds. It also will sometimes feed on cacti for moisture. It mainly feeds around dusk but sometimes emerges during the day. Like other hares, it does not dig itself a burrow, but lies concealed in a shallow depression. Females have up to three litters per year, typically of three to ten young each time. ^[5]

In the southwestern Pamir Mountains and the border areas between the Kashgar Basin and the Pamir, the desert hare of the pamirensis subspecies interbreeds with Yarkand hare due to overlapping or adjacent ranges. The hybrid zone is located between the two species along the border between the Pamir and the Kashgar Basin, resulting in a certain degree of genetic introgression and indistinguishable morphological traits in the external morphology of these hares. According to studies from 2024, with the southwestern Kashgar Basin serving as a refuge, the riverine hare may have migrated and spread multiple times throughout its evolutionary history, causing hybridization between hare species, leading to gene introgression and resulting in mixed relationships among hares in the southwestern Pamir and its surroundings. ^[7]

Status

The desert hare has a wide range but the population size and trend is not known. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern" on the grounds that no particular threats are recognised, and if the population is shrinking, it is likely to be doing so at too slow a rate to qualify for a more threatened category. ^[1]

References

1. Smith, A.T.; Johnston, C.H. (2019). "Lepus tibetanus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2019 e.T41307A45193298. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-1.RLTS.T41307A45193298.en . Retrieved 18 November 2021.
2. "Lepus tibetanus G. R. Waterhouse, 1841". ASM Mammal Diversity Database. American Society of Mammalogists.
3. Waterhouse, George Robert. "Description of a New Species of Hare from Thibet". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London . 9 (1): 7–8 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
4. Hoffmann, R.S.; Smith, A.T. (2005). "Lepus (Proeulagus) tibetanus". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 185–211. ISBN   978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC   62265494.
5. Smith, Andrew T.; Xie, Yan; Hoffmann, Robert S.; Lunde, Darrin; MacKinnon, John; Wilson, Don E.; Wozencraft, W. Chris (2010). A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 290–291. ISBN   978-1-4008-3411-2.
6. Alves, Paulo C.; Ferrand, Nuno; Hackländer, Klaus (29 December 2007). Lagomorph Biology: Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation. Springer. p. 401. ISBN   978-3-540-72446-9.
7. Shan, Wen-Juan; Li, Zu-Rui; Dai, Hui-Ying; Dong, Peng-Cheng; Zhang, Yu-Cong (2024). "Taxonomic status of hares (Lepus spp.) in Xinjiang, China (Lagomorpha: Leporidae): An integrative approach". Zoologica Scripta. 53 (3): 282–298. doi: 10.1111/zsc.12645 . ISSN   1463-6409.