Woolly hare

Woolly hare
Feeding in Qumarlêb County, Qinghai, China
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Lagomorpha
Family:	Leporidae
Genus:	Lepus
Species:	L. oiostolus
Binomial name
Lepus oiostolus Hodgson, 1840
Woolly hare range
Synonyms [2]
List Lepus diostolusHodgson, 1841 Lepus pallipessHodgson, 1842 Lepus oemodiasJ. E. Gray, 1847 Lepus diostolusBlanford, 1875 Lepus sechuenensisde Winton, 1899 Lepus sechuensisLyon, 1904 Lepus kozloviSatunin, 1907 Lepus przewalskiiSatunin, 1907 Lepus oiostolus tsaidamensisHilzheimer, 1910 Lepus oiostolus illuteusO. Thomas, 1914 Lepus grahamiA. B. Howell, 1928 Lepus qinghaiensisCai Guiquan & Feng Zuojian, 1982 Lepus qusongensisCai Guiquan & Feng Zuojian, 1982

The woolly hare (Lepus oiostolus) is a notably thick-furred species of hare found in the montane grasslands of western and central China, northern India, and Nepal. It has a wide range and is present in some protected areas but is a generally uncommon species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed it as a least-concern species, though it is considered endangered in India.

Taxonomy

The woolly hare was described in 1840 under the scientific name Lepus oiostolus by the British zoologist Brian Houghton Hodgson. ^[3] The species name oiostolus is reminiscent of the Ancient Greek οὖλος (oûlos), meaning 'woolly'. ^[4]

Several subspecies of the woolly hare have been described, though many have been discounted by later species accounts. After Hodgson's 1940 description of the woolly hare (the nominate subspecies), ^[2] he wrote an account of the species Lepus pallipes two years later, which would later be considered as the subspecies L. o. pallipes. ^[5] Another species, Lepus hypsibius, was described in 1875 by William Thomas Blanford; he would reconsider this species, as well as Lepus pallipes, to be varieties of the woolly hare in 1898. ^[6] Two subspecies—L. o. kozlovi and L. o. przewalskii—were described in 1907 by Konstantin Satunin as distinct species in the hare genus Lepus. Another subspecies, L. o. grahami, was described in 1928 by Alfred Brazier Howell (as Lepus grahami). ^[2] The woolly hare's systematics were clarified by Guiquan Cai and Zuojian Feng in 1982, when they noted the distinguishing characteristics of each woolly hare subspecies and added two new names, L. o. qinghaiensis and L. o. qusongensis. ^[7]

The third edition of Mammal Species of the World reworked the woolly hare's systematics, placing it into four subspecies: ^[5]

• Lepus oiostolus oiostolusHodgson, 1840
• Lepus oiostolus hypsibiusBlanford, 1875
• Lepus oiostolus pallipesHodgson, 1842
• Lepus oiostolus przewalskiiSatunin, 1907

A common characteristic between the various subspecies was that they were largely based on external characteristics, and little molecular analysis had been done to clarify differences between them. Additionally, it was unclear if there were any differences in geographic distribution between the subspecies. A 2016 species account noted that each subspecies was apparently present throughout the species' continuous distribution and that distinctions between them may be unreasonable. ^[8] Two years later, another account was published that did not recognize any subspecies; ^[9] this was maintained in the 2019 International Union for Conservation of Nature assessment of the species. ^[1]

Description

The woolly hare's thick and soft fur ranges from sandy yellow to dark yellowish brown. Abdominal fur is mostly white and can have a light brown line along the mid-ventral line. Notably, the buttocks can range from brownish‐gray to silvery‐gray and are noticeably lighter and grayer than the rest of the body. Tail white above except for a brown-gray narrow stripe on the dorsal surface, and white below. Muzzle elongated and narrow. Grows to a length of 40 to 58 cm (16 to 23 in). The coat is moulted just once a year. ^{[10] [7]}

Distribution and habitat

A resting woolly hare in Mustang District, Nepal

The woolly hare is native to Central Asia. Its range extends from northern Nepal, and Jammu and Kashmir and Sikkim in India, to western and central China, where it is present in the provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, Tibet, Xinjiang and Yunnan. The habitat of this hare is mainly high altitude grasslands of several types; Alpine meadows, shrubby meadows and upland cold deserts, but it also occurs in coniferous or mixed montane woodland. Its altitudinal range is from 3,000 to 5,300 m (9,800 to 17,400 ft) above sea level. ^{[1] [10]}

Ecology

The woolly hare is a shy and usually solitary animal, and although sometimes active by day, it is mostly nocturnal. It feeds on grasses and herbs, with individual animals returning regularly at night to the same foraging areas. During the day it sometimes rests in the sun in a sheltered position. The breeding season starts in April, with two litters of between four and six young being produced each year. ^[10]

Status

In Pologongka, Ladakh, India

The woolly hare has a wide range but is a generally uncommon species, and its population is described as "very low except in a few favoured areas". It is hunted for its meat and fur, and in some areas suitable habitat is being destroyed, resulting in fragmenting of populations and the inability of individuals to make local migrations. In Nepal and China it is present in some protected areas. Overall, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern" but in India it is considered "endangered". ^[1] The species' genome was sequenced in 2024. ^[11]

References

1. Smith, A.T.; Johnston, C.H. (2019). "Lepus oiostolus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2019 e.T41283A45188432. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-1.RLTS.T41283A45188432.en . Retrieved 14 November 2021.
2. "Lepus oiostolus". ASM Mammal Diversity Database. American Society of Mammalogists . Retrieved 11 November 2025.
3. Hodgson, Brian Houghton (1840). "On the Common Hare of the Gangetic Provinces, and of the Sub-Hemalaya; with a slight notice of a strictly Hemalayan species". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 9 (2): 1183–1186 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
4. "Wool, Scar, Wholeness: Oúlos, Oulê, Oulos and Odysseus". Sententiae Antiquae. 2017-07-31. Retrieved 2025-11-11.
5. Hoffmann, R.S.; Smith, A.T. (2005). "Lepus (? [see comments under species]) oiostolus". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 201–202. ISBN   978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC   62265494.
6. Blanford, William Thomas (1898). "Notes on Lepus oiostolus and L. pallipes from Tibet, and on a Kashmir Macaque". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London . 1898: 357–362 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
7. Cai, Guiquan; Feng, Zuojian (1982). 高原兔(Lepus oiostolus)亚种补充研究—包括两个新亚种[A systematic revision of the subspecies of highland hare (Lepus oiostolus)—including two new subspecies]. Acta Theriologica Sinica (in Chinese). 2 (2): 171. doi:10.16829/j.slxb.1982.02.008.
8. Wilson, D.E.; Lacher, T.E.; Mittermeier, R.A., eds. (2016). "Lepus oiostolus, Hodgson, 1840". Handbook of the Mammals of the World . Vol. 6. Lagomorphs and Rodents I. Lynx Edicions. pp. 134–135. ISBN   978-84-941892-3-4.
9. Smith, Andrew T. (2018). "Lepus oiostolus Hodgson, 1840 Woolly hare". In Smith, Andrew T.; Johnston, Charlotte H.; Alves, Paulo C.; Hackländer, Klaus (eds.). Lagomorphs: Pikas, Rabbits, and Hares of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press. doi:10.1353/book.57193. ISBN   978-1-4214-2341-8. LCCN   2017004268.
10. Smith, A. T.; Xie, Y.; Hoffmann, R. S.; Lunde, D.; MacKinnon, J.; Wilson, D. E.; Wozencraft, W. C. (2010). "Woolly Hare". A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton University Press. pp. 289–290. ISBN   978-1-4008-3411-2.
11. Feng, Shuo; Zhang, Yaying; He, Zhaotong; Xi, Erning; Ru, Dafu; Liang, Jian; Yang, Yongzhi (2024-02-10). "Chromosome-scale genome assembly of Lepus oiostolus (Lepus, Leporidae)". Scientific Data. 11 (1). doi:10.1038/s41597-024-03024-6. ISSN   2052-4463. PMC   10858874 . PMID   38341484.