The Ethiopian highland hare (''Lepus starcki'') or Starck's hare is a medium-sized species of

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur ...

in the rabbit and hare family,

Leporidae Leporidae is the family of rabbits and hares, containing over 60 species of extant mammals in all. The Latin word ''Leporidae'' means "those that resemble ''lepus''" (hare). Together with the pikas, the Leporidae constitute the mammalian order ...

. Its dorsal

pelage Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket ...

is grizzled, buff white and spotted and streaked with black, while its belly fur is pure white and fluffy. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to the

Ethiopian Highlands The Ethiopian Highlands is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below , while the summits reach heights of up to . ...

, ranging over the Afroalpine regions of the

Shoa SHOA or Servicio Hidrográfico y Oceanográfico de la Armada de Chile (Spanish for Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the Chilean Navy) is an agency of the Chilean Navy managing situations dealing with hydrography and oceanography, includin ...

, Bale, and Arsi Provinces of Ethiopia. A

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpar ...

, it mostly feeds on moorland grasses. The IUCN rates it as a species of

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. ...

Taxonomy

The Ethiopian highland hare was first described by the French zoologist Francis Petter in 1963. It was originally described as a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...

of the cape hare ( ''Lepus capensis''), but was later given a species status by Renate Angermann in 1983. In 1987, Maria Luisa Azzaroli-Puccetti also listed the Ethiopian highland hare as a separate species, although she suggested it to be a primitive form of the European hare ( ''Lepus europaeus''), and is closely related to it, due to the similarity of their skulls. She mentioned that after an

interglacial period An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene in ...

, the retraction of glaciers Might have isolated the populations of the European hare on the Ethiopian plateau, which evolved as a different subspecies. Thus, the scientific name she suggested was ''L. europaeus starcki''. In 2005, R.S. Hoffmann and A.T. Smith, following Angermann, listed the Ethiopian highland hare as a separate species. No subspecies are recognized for the Ethiopian highland hare.

Description

The Ethiopian highland hare is a medium-sized hare, measuring in length, and weighing . The skull is long, and the head is mottled tawny, similar to the back, with whitish chin, tawny

nape The nape is the back of the neck. In technical anatomical/medical terminology, the nape is also called the nucha (from the Medieval Latin rendering of the Arabic , "spinal marrow"). The corresponding adjective is ''nuchal'', as in the term ''nu ...

, and cinnamon tinged lips. A few individuals have white eye-rings. It has medium-sized ears measuring in length, with the upper quarter being black, and the outer surface having white fringe hairs at the outer margin, and wide, whitish or buff-colored fringe hairs at the inner margin, except at the tip. In a few hares, the black color of the upper quarter extends along the inner surface's inner margin and along the outer surface's outer margin, reaching up to the base of the ear. It has grizzled, buff white dorsal

which is spotted and streaked with black. The dorsal hairs are long, and have whitish gray bases, with black, wide subterminal bands, white terminal bands, and black tips. The ventral pelage is pure white and fluffy. The flanks have pale gray hairs at the base, with buff or whitish subterminal band, and black or white tips. The lower flanks are cinnamon russet, with white hairs having cinnamon tips. The

underparts Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...

are white, and the rump is gray. The nuchal patch is bright cinnamon or reddish brown in color, and does not extend to the neck-sides. It has gray or grayish white, dense

underfur Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket ...

. It has a medium-sized

tail The tail is the section at the rear end of certain kinds of animals’ bodies; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammal ...

which is completely white for that occurring in the Shoa Province, and white with a mid-dorsal black stripe for that occurring in the

Bale Mountains The Bale Mountains (also known as the Urgoma Mountains) are mountain ranges in the Oromia Region of southeast Ethiopia, south of the Awash River, part of the Ethiopian Highlands. They include Tullu Demtu, the second-highest mountain in Ethiopia ...

. The feet are densely padded with brown hairs. The forelimbs are long, pale cinnamon colored. The hindfeet measure in length, and are cinnamon-buff-colored above, and medium brown below. The principal

incisor Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, wher ...

s are wide grooved. The Ethiopian highland hare is similar to the Abyssinian hare (''

Lepus habessinicus The Abyssinian hare (''Lepus habessinicus'') is a species of mammal in the family Leporidae. It is almost entirely restricted to the nations of the Horn of Africa, though it extends marginally into eastern Sudan and may also occur in far northern ...

'') which has grizzled, silvery gray dorsal pelage and has a narrow, black rim at the tip of the ears. It is also similar to the African savannah hare (''

Lepus victoriae The African savanna hare (''Lepus victoriae'') is a mammal species in the family Leporidae, native to Africa. It is listed as "least concern" on the IUCN Red List. Distribution and habitat It is native to diverse regions and habitats of Africa, ...

'') which has brown dorsal pelage grizzled with black, and ears having lesser black on tip. Its nuchal patch is brownish-orange to orange, and it has not been observed to occur in the Ethiopian plateau.

Distribution and habitat

Ethiopian Highland Hare (Lepus starcki) running

The Ethiopian highland hare is

to the central

, occurring in the Afroalpine regions of Ethiopia. It occurs on the central plateau of the Shoa Province, and in the mountains of Bale and Arsi Province except in the

Great Rift Valley The Great Rift Valley is a series of contiguous geographic trenches, approximately in total length, that runs from Lebanon in Asia to Mozambique in Southeast Africa. While the name continues in some usages, it is rarely used in geology as it ...

which parts the two provinces. The complete distribution of the Ethiopian highland hare, according to Angermann, falls in between 6° 50' N and 9° 35' N latitudes, and 38° E and to slightly east of 40° E longitudes. There is very little information about the habitat and ecology of the Ethiopian highland hare, but it is known to inhabit restricted montane moorlands or grasslands, in open highland regions of its distribution. It is found at of elevation from the sea level. The Ethiopian highland hare is

sympatric In biology, two related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct species s ...

in part of its range with the Abyssinian hare. In

afroalpine The Afromontane regions are subregions of the Afrotropical realm, one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms, covering the plant and animal species found in the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Afromontane regions of ...

grasslands of the

Sanetti Plateau The Sanetti Plateau is a major plateau of the Ethiopian Highlands, in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. The plateau is the highest part of the Bale Mountains, and is located within Bale Mountains National Park.L.J.G. van der Maesen, X.M. van der Bu ...

, its population density is evaluated to be 0.3 individuals per

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre i ...

, in ''

Helichrysum The genus ''Helichrysum'' consists of an estimated 600 species of flowering plants in the sunflower family (Asteraceae). The type species is '' Helichrysum orientale''. They often go by the names everlasting, immortelle, and strawflower. The nam ...

'' scrub of the Tullu Deemtu Mountain (Bale) as 0.2 individuals per hectare, and in the Web Valley grasslands (Bale) as 0.17 individuals per hectare.

Behavior and ecology

The Ethiopian highland hare is a

, and mostly feeds on moorland grasses such as bentgrass (''

Agrostis ''Agrostis'' (bent or bentgrass) is a large and very nearly cosmopolitan genus of plants in the grass family, found in nearly all the countries in the world. It has been bred as a GMO creeping bent grass. Species * ''Agrostis aequivalvi'' (Ar ...

''), goosegrass (''

Eleusine ''Eleusine'' is a genus of Asian, African, and South American plants in the grass family,Festuca ''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on ever ...

'', fountaingrass (''

Pennisetum ''Pennisetum'' is a widespread genus of plants in the grass family, native to tropical and warm temperate regions of the world. They are known commonly as fountaingrasses (fountain grasses).Poa''). At such altitudes in which the Ethiopian highland hare lives, it is expected to reproduce in dry seasons. The female produces one offspring per breeding season. Not much has been recorded about its reproduction and behavior. The Ethiopian highland hare is predated by the Ethiopian wolf ( ''Canis simensis'') and statistically forms 1.6% of its diet numerically, or 11.6% by weight. The tawny eagle ( ''Aquila rapax'') is also a known predator of the Ethiopian highland hare.

Status and conservation

Since 1996, the Ethiopian highland hare is rated as a species of

on the

IUCN Red List of Endangered Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

. This is because, although it has a restricted range in Ethiopia, it is thought to be an abundant species within its distribution. It is recorded as "quite abundant and sufficiently represented in existing protected areas." The current state of its population trend is unclear, but the status has been reported as "relatively numerous" by John E.C. Flux and Angermann in 1990. Its population numbers are reported to be fluctuating. It occurs in the protected area of the

. There are no known threats to the Ethiopian highland hare.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q257754 Lepus Endemic fauna of Ethiopia Mammals of Ethiopia Fauna of the Ethiopian Highlands Mammals described in 1963 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot