Lepus microtis

Heuglin, 1865

Savanna Hare

Figure 1. Photograph by B. Stanley.

Figure 2. FMNH 17333. Photograph by R. Banasiak.

Type Description:

Leopoldiana, 5:32, in Nova Acta Acad. Caes. Leop.-Carol., Halle, 24

Type Locality:

'Lande der Ridj,' [Bahr-el-Ghazal, Sudan].

Measurements:

Head and body: 411-480 mm

Tail length: 73-134 mm

Hindfoot length: 103-119 mm

Ear length: 85-114 mm

Weight: 1-2.5 g

Distribution:

Lepus microtis prefers moister and grassier woodlands, scrubby and montane grasslands, wooded savannas, secondary growth and stony, wooded steppe. This species is distributed throughout most of Africa south of the Sahara from Mauritanadto Sierra Leone in the west across to Ethiopia, southern Kenya and Tanzania in the east over through the southern part of Dem. Rep of Congo and Angola down to South Africa. (Kingdon, 1984, 1997)

Figure 3.

Key Reference:

1. Kingdon, J. 1984. East African mammals: An atlas of evolution in Africa. (Hares and Rodents). University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2B:344-351.
2. Kingdon, J. 1997. The Kingdon field guide to African mammals, AP Natural World Academic Press, Harcourt Brace & Company, San Diego, p. 154-155.
3. Nowak, R. M. 1999. Walker's Mammals of the World. Sixth ed. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2:1720, 1733-1738.
4. Swynnerton, G. H., and R. W. Hayman. 1951. A checklist of the land mammals of the Tanganyika Territory and the Zanzibar Protectorate. Journal of the East African Natural History Society, 20(6):274-392.