Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Capro­la­gus hispidus has pre­vi­ously been recorded along the south­ern foothills of the Hi­malayan moun­tain chain, in the area from Uttar Pradesh, through Nepal, Sikkim, Ben­gal, and Bhutan, to Assam. Hispid hares are cur­rently very rare, and are ex­tinct over most of this area. They are now con­fined to north­west­ern Assam, and a few areas in Nepal. (Bur­ton and Bur­ton, 1988; Ghose, 1978; Mas­si­cot, 2003; Oliver, 1978; Oliver, 1980)

• Biogeographic Regions
• palearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

Gen­er­ally, hispid hares live in areas with tall-grass sa­van­nah. They enjoy habi­tats that are es­sen­tially flat, well drained, and thinly forested. Since hispid hares are de­pen­dent on the roots and shoots of thatch for food, they are as­so­ci­ated with areas that have a high amount of thatch, com­monly re­ferred to as thatch­land or ele­phant grass. This veg­e­ta­tion grows up to 3.5 me­ters in height (dur­ing the mon­soon). (Bur­ton and Bur­ton, 1988; Ghose, 1978; Mas­si­cot, 2003; Nowak, 1999a; Oliver, 1978; Oliver, 1980)

In the early months of the year (Jan­u­ary through April), the grass­land and nearby forests are set on fire in an at­tempt to con­trol the fau­nal com­po­si­tion of the re­gion. Hispid hares move to cul­ti­vated fields and shel­ter on the banks of dried up streams. Once the mon­soon reaches its peak, the thatch be­comes wa­ter­logged and C. hispidus moves to the forested areas of nearby foothills. (Bur­ton and Bur­ton, 1988; Ghose, 1978; Mas­si­cot, 2003; Nowak, 1999a; Oliver, 1978; Oliver, 1980)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Mass aver­erages 2500 grams, and length ranges from 405 to 538 mm. C. hispidus have short, broad ears, and small eyes. This species has strong claws and large teeth. The hind legs of C. hispidus are short and stout, not often ex­ceed­ing the length of the fore­limbs. There are two lay­ers of fur: a coarse, bristly, outer layer, and an under layer which is shorter and finer. The top layer of pelage is dark brown in color due to a mix­ture of black and brown­ish-white hairs, whereas the bot­tom layer con­sists of hair that is strictly brown­ish white. The tail also has two lay­ers of pelage, both of which are brown; the top layer is dark­est. (Bur­ton and Bur­ton, 1988; Ghose, 1978; Nowak, 1999a)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Average mass

  2.5 kg

  5.51 lb

• Range length

  405 to 538 mm

  15.94 to 21.18 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

There is no avail­able in­for­ma­tion about the mat­ing sys­tems of C. hispidus. Be­cause this species is the only one in the genus Capro­la­gus, we are not able to make any gen­er­al­iza­tions about re­pro­duc­tion in this species based on close rel­a­tives.

Lit­tle is known about the re­pro­duc­tion of C. hispidus. How­ever, lo­cals have re­ported catch­ing young from Jan­u­ary to March. Two out of three fe­males cap­tured in the months of Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary were preg­nant. (Ghose, 1978; Mas­si­cot, 2003; Nowak, 1999a; Oliver, 1978; Oliver, 1980)

Mem­bers of the fam­ily Lep­ori­dae are known to have a ges­ta­tion of 25 to 50 days. Within the fam­ily, fe­males usu­ally give birth to be­tween two and eight young, al­though there can be as many as 15 young per lit­ter in some species. Fe­males are typ­i­cally polye­strous, and can give birth to sev­eral lit­ters per year. (Nowak, 1999b)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Hispid hares breed once or twice per year.

• Breeding season

  Based on capture of pregnant females, breeding apparently occurs in late winter or early spring.

• Range number of offspring

  2 to 5

There is lit­tle in­for­ma­tion avail­able about the parental care habits of C. hispidus. It is as­sumed that this species is sim­i­lar to other mem­bers of the order Lago­mor­pha. Most lago­morphs ex­hibit lit­tle or no parental care. Males have never ex­hib­ited any form of parental care, but fe­males feed the young for about 5 min­utes every 24 hours. This is the only con­tact be­tween the mother and young. (Mac­Don­ald, 2001)

• Parental Investment
• no parental involvement
• pre-fertilization
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Since hispid hares are hard to find, not much is known about their nat­ural lifes­pan. In cap­tiv­ity, these an­i­mals do not sur­vive very long. There were four or five hispid hares cap­tured for the Gauhati Zoo dur­ing 1975, but they all died dur­ing trans­port. An­other pair was cap­tured in 1976 and was kept for two to three months until one es­caped and the other was re­leased. One cap­tured hare wanted to avoid hu­mans so much that he frac­tured his skull by dash­ing his head against the wire en­clo­sure. (Oliver, 1978; Oliver, 1980)

Be­hav­ior

Lit­tle is known about the be­hav­ior of C. hispidus. Local peo­ple have said that these an­i­mals are slow mov­ing. Hispid hares are usu­ally soli­tary, al­though mem­bers of the species have been seen in pairs. They are noc­tur­nal an­i­mals that are most often seen by ve­hi­cle head­lights. Hispid hares have shown no ev­i­dence of bur­row­ing or nest build­ing. The only phys­i­cal ev­i­dence of C. hispidus ac­tiv­ity are thatch cut­tings and fecal de­posits that are char­ac­ter­is­tic of the species. The cut­tings and fecal de­posits show rest­ing and feed­ing lo­ca­tions, but may also have ter­ri­to­r­ial sig­nif­i­cance. (Ghose, 1978; Mas­si­cot, 2003; Oliver, 1978; Oliver, 1980)

Other mem­bers of the fam­ily Lep­ori­dae are known to drum their hind feet when they are threat­ened, or to help de­fine ter­ri­to­ries. (Nowak, 1999b)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• nocturnal
• motile
• sedentary
• solitary

Home Range

The mean home range of males is ap­prox­i­mately 8,204 square me­ters, but for fe­males it is only 2,786 square me­ters. (Nowak, 1999a)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Not much is known about the com­mu­ni­ca­tion of C. hispidus. It is known that all rab­bits and hares (mem­bers of the fam­ily Leo­pori­dae) se­crete scent from glands in the groin area and under the chin. The scent is ap­par­ently used in sex­ual com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Many rab­bits and hares use foot drum­ming as a means of com­mu­ni­ca­tion. (Mac­Don­ald, 2001; Nowak, 1999b)

Be­cause C. hispidus is a mam­mal, we can infer that they use some vi­sual sig­nals. Also, there is prob­a­bly tac­tile com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween mates, as well as be­tween moth­ers and their off­spring, al­though most lago­morph moth­ers do not pro­vide ex­ten­sive parental care. (Mac­Don­ald, 2001; Nowak, 1999b)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

C. hispidus is an her­biv­o­rous an­i­mal. The diet of C. hispidus con­sists mainly of bark, shoots and roots of grasses (in­clud­ing thatch species), and crops on oc­ca­sion. Al­though hispid hares feed in a pre­ferred lo­cale (spe­cific to each an­i­mal), they choose to feed in dif­fer­ent sites within this lo­cale. (Mas­si­cot, 2003; Oliver, 1978; Oliver, 1980)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • lignivore

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• roots and tubers
• wood, bark, or stems

Pre­da­tion

There are no known anti-preda­tor adap­ta­tions among C. hispidus. Dogs and hu­mans are ap­par­ently the great­est preda­tors of these hares. (Bur­ton and Bur­ton, 1988; Ghose, 1978; Mas­si­cot, 2003; Nowak, 1999a; Oliver, 1978)

• Known Predators

  • humans (Homo sapiens)
  • domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris)

Ecosys­tem Roles

This an­i­mal is be­lieved to be prey for dogs as well as hu­mans. Other in­for­ma­tion is un­known. (Bur­ton and Bur­ton, 1988; Nowak, 1999a; Ghose, 1978; Oliver, 1978)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Hu­mans hunt these an­i­mals for food. (Oliver, 1980; Ghose, 1978; Oliver, 1978)

• Positive Impacts
• food

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Hispid hares are be­lieved to be crop pests. (Nowak, 1999a)

• Negative Impacts
• crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Hispid hares are one of the worlds rarest mam­mals. This an­i­mal was feared ex­tinct in 1964, but in 1966, one was spot­ted. The range of this an­i­mal is much smaller than it once was. There were an es­ti­mated 110 hispid hares world­wide in 2001. Due to rapid habi­tat de­struc­tion, lack of suc­cess in cap­tiv­ity, and hunt­ing, their num­bers con­tinue to shrink. As a re­sult of their rar­ity, lit­tle is known about hispid hares. These an­i­mals are threat­ened mainly due to con­ver­sion of their habi­tat to agri­cul­ture and grass­land burn­ing. They are often con­fused with the more com­mon Lepus ni­gri­col­lis and are there­fore hunted for food. They are also preyed on by dogs. (Bur­ton and Bur­ton, 1988; Ghose, 1978; Mas­si­cot, 2003; Nowak, 1999a; Nowak, 1999b; Oliver, 1978; Oliver, 1980)

• IUCN Red List

  Endangered
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Endangered
  More information

• US Federal List

  Endangered

• CITES

  Appendix I

Con­trib­u­tors

Nancy Shef­ferly (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Sara Knoth (au­thor), Michi­gan State Uni­ver­sity, Bar­bara Lun­dri­gan (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Michi­gan State Uni­ver­sity.

Ref­er­ences

Bur­ton, J., V. Bur­ton. 1988. The Collins Guide to Rare Mam­mals of the World. Lex­ing­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts: The Stephen Greene Press.

Ghose, R. K. 1978. Ob­ser­va­tions on the Ecol­ogy and Sta­tus of the hispid Hare in Ra­ja­garh For­est, Dar­rang Dis­trict, Assam, in 1975 and 1976. Bom­bay Nat­u­raly His­tory So­ci­ety Jour­nal, Vol. 75: 206-209.

Mac­Don­ald, D. 2001. Rab­bits and Hares. Pp. 693-702 in The En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals, Vol. 3. New York, NY: Facts On File, Inc.

Mas­si­cot, P. 2003. "An­i­mal Info-In­for­ma­tion on Rare, Threat­ened and En­dan­gered Mam­mals" (On-line ). An­i­mal Info- Hispid Hare. Ac­cessed 03/02/03 at http://​www.​animalinfo.​org/​species/​caprhisp.​htm.

Nowak, R. 1999. Bristly Rab­bit, or Hispid "Hare". Pp. 1731-1732 in Walk­ers Mam­mals of the World, Vol. 2, 6th Edi­tion. Bal­ti­more, Mary­land: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Nowak, R. 1999. Hares and Rab­bits. Pp. 1720-1721 in Walker's Mam­mals of the World, Vol. 2, 6th Edi­tion. Bal­ti­more, Mary­land: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Oliver, W. L. R. 1980. The Pygmy Hog: The Bi­ol­ogy and Con­ser­va­tion of the Pigmy Hog and the Hispid Hare. Les Au­gres Manor, Trin­ity, Jer­sey, Chan­nel Is­lands: Jer­sey Wildlife Preser­va­tion Trust.

Oliver, W. L. R. 1978. The Doubt­ful Fu­ture of the Pigmy Hog and the Hispid Hare. Bom­bay Nat­ural His­tory So­ci­ety Jour­nal, Vol. 75: 341-372.