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Pedetes capensisSouth African spring hare(Also: spring hare)

By Adria Jackson

Ge­o­graphic Range

Pedetes capen­sis, also known as the Spring­hare, is found in the south of Zaire and Kenya as well as South Africa. Some spring­hares are also lo­cated in East Africa.

Habi­tat

Spring­hares live in areas with sandy, dry soil. They also can be found in areas of cat­tle graz­ing and cul­ti­va­tion of crops such as wheat, oats, and bar­ley. They dig un­der­ground tun­nels and live in them.

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

The body length of Pedetes capen­sis is 35-45 cm, and the tail mea­sures 37-48 cm. Pedetes have a shoul­der height of 30 cm when they sit on their hind legs. They also have long ears that are 7-9 cm long. The body color on the dor­sal side can be red­dish brown, sandy, tawny brown, or cin­na­mon buff with oc­ca­sional white or black hairs. The ven­tral side is white, and a line of sim­i­lar color ex­tends up the front of the thighs and in­side the legs. The tail is very hairy and has a thick black or dark brown brush at the tip end. Over­all, their pelage is thin, soft and long with no un­der­fur found.

The spring­hare re­sem­bles a kan­ga­roo with short forelegs and long pow­er­ful hind legs. They have four toes on their hind feet with claws that look like small hoofs; these are wider than those found on the forefeet. They have a thick mus­cu­lar neck sup­port­ing their short head. They also have large eyes, and their ears have a tra­gus that pre­vents sand from en­ter­ing when they are dig­ging.

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • sexes alike
  • Range mass
    3 to 4 kg
    6.61 to 8.81 lb
  • Average basal metabolic rate
    4.427 W
    AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

The spring­hare can give birth all dur­ing the year. It has a ges­ta­tion pe­riod of 78-82 days and bears one young. The adult fe­male has on av­er­age 3.6 liters per year, and there is an av­er­age of 101 days be­tween each liter. The av­er­age weight of the male and fe­male new­borns are 300g and 278g re­spec­tively. At birth, the spring­hare has hair cov­er­ing its en­tire body, Its eyes usu­ally open in 3 days. At seven weeks of age, the young spring­hare leaves its mother and weighs about 1.5 kg. It reaches sex­ual ma­tu­rity when the body weight is 2.5 kg. There is no ev­i­dence of sex­ual di­mor­phism in these an­i­mals.

  • Key Reproductive Features
  • gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
  • sexual
  • Average number of offspring
    1
    AnAge
  • Average gestation period
    80 days
    AnAge
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    Sex: female
    1034 days
    AnAge

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Be­hav­ior

Spring­hares are mostly noc­tur­nal but are oc­ca­sion­ally ac­tive in the day. Dur­ing the day­time, they live in tun­nels that they dig. They plug the en­trance of the hole with soil from the in­side of the tun­nel. It is eas­ier for them to dig dur­ing the rainy sea­son when the soil is wet. Some­times they leap out of their bur­rows when they come out at night. The spring­hare jumps like a kan­ga­roo on its hind legs, re­treat­ing to its bur­row when fright­ened.

It has been found that a pair of spring­hares may oc­cupy many dif­fer­ent bur­rows on dif­fer­ent days. They tend to make three bur­rows to­gether in a cir­cu­lar shape. These bur­rows are mostly found near the largest tree or bush within their home range. The spring­hare's home range is within 25-250 me­ters of its bur­row. It may ex­pand its area dur­ing a drought.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Food Habits

The spring­hare likes to eat bar­ley, oats, and wheat. They are mainly her­biv­o­rous but they have been found to eat some in­sects (bee­tles and grasshop­pers) as well.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

The spring­hare is hunted in South Africa be­cause it is con­sid­ered an im­por­tant source of food. They are often kept in cap­tiv­ity in zo­o­log­i­cal gar­dens. Spring­hares are soli­tary an­i­mals in the wild but they co­ex­ist to­gether in cap­tiv­ity well.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

In areas of cul­ti­va­tion where crops of ground­nuts, barely, wheat, and oats are grown, spring­hares may cause some dam­age to these crops.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The spring­hare is listed as vul­ner­a­ble by the IUCN due to an ap­prox­i­mately 20% de­crease in the pop­u­la­tion over the last ten years. This has been caused by in­tense hunt­ing and the loss of habi­tat.

Other Com­ments

Pedetes capen­sis is the only liv­ing genus and species of the fam­ily Pede­ti­dae.

Con­trib­u­tors

Adria Jack­son (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Ethiopian

living in sub-Saharan Africa (south of 30 degrees north) and Madagascar.

World Map

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

desert or dunes

in deserts low (less than 30 cm per year) and unpredictable rainfall results in landscapes dominated by plants and animals adapted to aridity. Vegetation is typically sparse, though spectacular blooms may occur following rain. Deserts can be cold or warm and daily temperates typically fluctuate. In dune areas vegetation is also sparse and conditions are dry. This is because sand does not hold water well so little is available to plants. In dunes near seas and oceans this is compounded by the influence of salt in the air and soil. Salt limits the ability of plants to take up water through their roots.

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

tactile

uses touch to communicate

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

Ref­er­ences

Au­gus­tine, D., A. Man­zon, C. Klopp, J. Elter. 1995. Habi­tat se­lec­tion and group for­ag­ing of the spring­hare, Pedetes capen­sis lar­valis Hol­lis­ter, in East Africa. African Jour­nal of Ecol­ogy, vol­ume 33(4): 347-357.

Grz­imek, D., D. Badrian, D. Herre, R. Hess, M. Jones. 1990. Grz­imek's En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals (vol.3). New York, St. Louis, San Fran­cisco: Mc­Graw-Hill Pub­lish­ing Com­pany.

Walker, E., R. Nowak. 1999. Walker's Mam­mals of the World. Bal­ti­more and Lon­don: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

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Classification

Classification

  • Kingdom Animalia animals
  • Phylum Chordata chordates
  • Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
  • Class Mammalia mammals
  • Order Rodentia rodents
  • Family Pedetidae springhare
  • Genus Pedetes springhare
  • Species Pedetes capensis South African spring hare