Chinese hare
| Chinese hare | |
|---|---|
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| 19th-century illustration by Thomas Hardwicke | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Lagomorpha |
| Family: | Leporidae |
| Genus: | Lepus |
| Species: | L. sinensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Lepus sinensis J. E. Gray, 1832 | |
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| Chinese hare range | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
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List
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The Chinese hare (Lepus sinensis) is a species of mammal in the family Leporidae.[3] It is found in China, Taiwan and Vietnam.[1]
Taxonomy and etymology
[edit]The Chinese hare was first described by John Edward Gray in 1832, where it appeared in the 12th part of the 2nd volume of the work Illustrations of Indian Zoology.[4] The publication included only an illustration alongside the text "Chinese hare. Lepus sinensis. Gray" and "China. J.B. Reeves, British Museum".[5] Nearly 100 years later, in 1927, American zoologist Glover Morrill Allen transferred the species to the genus Caprolagus, as he considered the Chinese hare to be so different from other hares that it was closer to the hispid hare of Nepal. He called it "the common rabbit of South China", noted its short ears and harsh fur, and clarified its type locality as being in the region of Canton (as Gray had been exceedingly vague in his specification that the hare was found in "China"). He also provided a description of the subspecies Caprolagus sinensis flaviventris, which could be found in the mountains of Fujian.[6]
Allen provided a more detailed description of the Chinese hare in the 1938 work The Mammals of China and Mongolia, and offered the common names of "harsh-furred hare" and "Chinese rabbit" for the species; he noted there that a species previously described by researcher Chausu McAmicus Shih in 1930, Lepus yuenshanensis, actually pertained to the Chinese hare subspecies C. s. flaviventris.[7] Shih's definition was used for the subspecies L. s. yuenshanensis, which was separated out from the others in 2005 in the third edition of Mammal Species of the World.[8] By 1947, mammalogist George Henry Hamilton Tate had returned the Chinese hare to the binomial name Lepus sinensis in the book Mammals of Eastern Asia.[9] Several years earlier, in 1908, Oldfield Thomas described a species of hare native to the island of Taiwan (then known as Formosa) that resembled the Chinese hare, but had paler fur: Lepus formosus, the Formosan hare.[10] However, by 1951, this species had been relegated to a subspecies of the Chinese hare.[11] As of 2018, two subspecies of the Chinese hare were recognized:[12]
- Lepus sinensis sinensis, the nominate subspecies found across mainland China and Vietnam; and
- Lepus sinensis formosus, the Formosan hare found on Taiwan.
The Korean hare (Lepus coreanus) was at one time considered to be a subspecies of the Chinese hare; it was first described as such by Oldfield Thomas in 1892, where he noted that it could be determined to be a distinct species based on seasonal variations in its fur color compared to L. sinensis.[13] It remained a subspecies in Ellerman and Morrison-Scott's 1951 Checklist of Palearctic and Indian Mammals.[11] Molecular studies of mtDNA have since shown that the Korean hare is in fact a separate species.[14]
Description
[edit]The Chinese hare is a small species growing to a length of about 40 to 76 centimetres (16 to 30 in) and a weight of 1.25 to 1.94 kilograms (2.8 to 4.3 lb) with the females being rather larger than the males. The fur is short and coarse, the back and chest being chestnut-brown and the belly whitish. The large hind feet are furred, the tail is brown and the tips of the ears bear triangular black patches. It is distinguished from other Lepus species by the shape and details of its skull and teeth.[15]
Distribution and habitat
[edit]The Chinese hare is native to the Chinese provinces of Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Zhejiang. It also occurs on Taiwan and in a small area of north-eastern Vietnam. The hare is found at elevations from sea level up to 5,000 metres (16,000 feet); higher elevation habitats above 4,000 m (13,000 ft) are typically forested with bamboo. Most Chinese hares inhabit hilly grasslands populated with scrub.[1]
The population of Chinese hare in Taiwan is considered as a subspecies, known as the Formosan hare (L. s. formosus).[16] Other than the nominate subspecies L. s. sinensis, a subspecies endemic to Hunan, L. s. yuenshanensis, has been documented since 1930.[17]
Diet and ecology
[edit]The Chinese hare's diet consists of leafy plants, twigs, and green plant shoots.[12] A study in Taohongling Nature Reserve in Jiujiang, China found that the hare's preferred plant species included Rubus chingii, Smilax china, and Rhus chinensis, though its diet is considerably varied. Conspecific animals like the Sika deer and Reeves's muntjac were found to have less varied diets in the same study.[18]
It is mainly nocturnal and produces two types of faeces, moist and dry pellets. It eats the moist pellets immediately so as to extract the maximum nutritional value from its food. It does not live underground in a burrow but has a form or nest in long vegetation. A litter of about three precocial young are born in this and visited by the mother once a day for a few minutes to allow them to suckle. The mother's milk is particularly rich in protein and fat and the lactation period lasts for about three weeks, Various carnivores prey on the Chinese hare and it relies on its fast running speed to escape from predators.[15] It may opportunistically use burrows of other animals and pile fecal pellets outside the entrance.[17]
Conservation status
[edit]The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the Chinese hare in its Red List of Threatened Species as a least-concern species, and it is listed as the same under China's Red List. In Vietnam, it occurs in heavily populated areas and is at risk from hunting and habitat loss; as such, Chinese hare populations are thought to be very small there. There have been no confirmed records of the species in the country since the 1990s.[17] No details about population trends outside of Vietnam are known. The Chinese hare occurs in several protected areas within China, such as Nanling National Forest Park and Wuyishan National Nature Reserve. Local groups hunt the hare for food and sell it in markets. This hunting is thought to be a major threat to the species' survival. The authors of the 2016 IUCN Red List assessment recommended that studies on the species' distribution be carried out to determine the impact of agriculture on populations.[1]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 Smith, A.T.; Johnston, C.H. (2019). "Lepus sinensis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2019 e.T41286A45189035. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-1.RLTS.T41286A45189035.en. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
- ↑ "Lepus sinensis J. E. Gray, 1832 Chinese hare". ASM Mammal Diversity Database. American Society of Mammalogists. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
- ↑ Hoffmann, R.S.; Smith, A.T. (2005). "Order Lagomorpha". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 203. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
- ↑ Sawyer, F. C. (1953). "The dates of issue of J. E. Gray's Illustrations of Indian Zoology (London, 1830—1835)". Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History. 3 (1): 48–55. doi:10.3366/jsbnh.1953.3.1.48. ISSN 0037-9778.
- ↑ Gray, John Edward; Hardwicke, Thomas; Hawkins, Benjamin Waterhouse (1832). Illustrations of Indian Zoology. Vol. 2. Adolphus Richter and Co., and Parbury, Allen and Co. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.95127. OCLC 10066378 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ↑ Allen, Glover M. (13 September 1927). "Lagomorphs collected by the Asiatic expeditions". American Museum Novitates (284): 4–6. hdl:2246/4339.
- ↑ Allen, Glover M. (1938). "The lagomorphs". The Mammals of China and Mongolia. American Museum of Natural History. pp. 558–561. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.12195 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- ↑ Hoffmann, R.S.; Smith, A.T. (2005). "Lepus (Sinolagus) sinensis yuenshanensis". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 185–211. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
- ↑ Tate, G. H. H. (1947). "Descriptions of east Asiatic mammals". Mammals of Eastern Asia. The Macmillan Company. p. 205. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.6397. OCLC 767570 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- ↑ Thomas, Oldfield (1908). "New Asiatic Apodemus, Evotomys, and Lepus". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 8. 1: 447–450. ISSN 0374-5481. OCLC 1481361 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- 1 2 Ellerman, John R.; Morrison-Scott, Terence C. S. (1951). Checklist of Palearctic and Indian Mammals 1758-1946. National History Museum. p. 442 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- 1 2 Smith, Andrew T.; Johnston, Charlotte H.; Alves, Paulo C.; Hackländer, Klaus, eds. (2018). "Lepus sinensis Gray, 1832 Chinese hare". Lagomorphs: Pikas, Rabbits, and Hares of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 208. doi:10.1353/book.57193. ISBN 978-1-4214-2341-8. LCCN 2017004268.
- ↑ Thomas, Oldfield. "Diagnosis of a new subspecies of hare from the Corea". Magazine of Natural History. 6. 9: 146–147 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- ↑ Hung Sun Koh; Kyung Hee Jang (2010). "Genetic distinctness of the Korean hare, Lepus coreanus (Mammalia, Lagomorpha), revealed by nuclear thyroglobulin gene and mtDNA control region sequences". Biochemical Genetics. 48 (7–8): 706–710. doi:10.1007/s10528-010-9353-0. PMID 20526735. S2CID 20926137.
- 1 2 "Lepus sinensis - Chinese hare". Living organisms. Wildpro. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
- ↑ "Forest mammal sightings up". Taipei Times. 7 August 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
- 1 2 3 Schai-Braun, S.C.; Hackländer, K. (2016). "Family Leporidae (Hares and Rabbits)". In Wilson, D.E.; Lacher, T.E.; Mittermeier, R.A. (eds.). Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Vol. 6. Lagomorphs and Rodents I. Lynx Edicions. p. 148. ISBN 978-84-941892-3-4.
- ↑ Wang, Dandan; Hu, Xiaolong; Li, Minling; Liu, Jie; Tang, Ming; Liu, Wuhua; Zhan, Jianwen; Xu, Yongtao; Zhang, Weiwei (22 February 2023). "Diet composition and interspecific niche of Taohongling Sika deer (Cervus nippon kopschi) and its sympatric Reeve's muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi) and Chinese hare (Lepus sinensis) in winter (Animalia, Mammalia)". ZooKeys. 1149. Pensoft Publishers: 17–36. doi:10.3897/zookeys.1149.96936. ISSN 1313-2970. PMC 10208087. PMID 37234447.