Order: Lagomorpha

Family: Leporidae

 

Size: up to 40-70 cm in length.

Weight: up to 1.35-7.0 kg.

 

Key Features: also known as black-naped hares due to the patch of black fur that runs along the nape of the neck. The top of the tail is also black and the back and face are brown with black hairs scat­tered through­out. The un­der­parts are white. Like all hares, they have long ears and large hind feet which are well furred.

 

Breeding: Re­pro­duc­tion rates tend to be at their high­est dur­ing the wet sea­son.  One to eight young are born after a ges­ta­tion pe­riod of 41 to 47 days. Sex­ual ma­tu­rity oc­curs in the year fol­low­ing birth.

 

Diet: During the wet season, short grasses are abundant and they are the preferred food. During the dry season, when short grasses are scarce, more flowering plants are consumed. They also eat crops and germinating seeds.

 

Habitat: generally found in areas where large tracts of bush and jungle alternate with farmland. They are also commonly sighted in coastal herb communities.

 

Habits: they spend much of the day­time sleep­ing in "forms" or de­pres­sions made in the grass. Oc­ca­sion­ally they will be seen stretched out on their sides, sun­ning them­selves. They are pri­mar­ily di­ur­nal and soli­tary, though may ag­gre­gate some­what for breed­ing.

 

Conservation Status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

Distribution in the GoK: reported along the coast of Gulf of Kachchh.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Lepus nigricollis. In Animal Diversity Web, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan. Retrieved on July 15, 2014 from http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Lepus_nigricollis/

 

IUCN Red List. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/41282/0

 

Photo Courtesy

N A Nazeer, Licensed under CC-BY-SA-2.5-in via Wikimedia Commons