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
Indian Hare (Lepus nigricollis)
