Lepus saxatilis F. Cuvier 1823

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Lagomorpha, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 185-211 : 202

Lepus saxatilis F. Cuvier 1823

Lepus saxatilis F. Cuvier 1823 , Dict. Sci. Nat., 26: 309.

Type Locality: "il habite les contrées qui se trouvent à trois journées au nord du cap de Bonne-Espérance," [Cape of Good Hope, South Africa].

Vernacular Names: Scrub Hare.

Subspecies: :

Subspecies Lepus saxatilis subsp. saxatilis F. Cuvier 1823

Subspecies Lepus saxatilis subsp. subrufus Roberts 1913

Distribution: South Africa (former Cape Province [and Zululand north to C KwaZulu-Natal?]) and S Namibia.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Placed by Gureev (1964:203) in subgenus Proeulagus , and in Sabanalagus by Averianov, 1998). Formerly included crawshayi and whytei, see Ansell (1978:67), Swanepoel et al. (1980:159), and Robinson and Dippenaar (1983 b, 1987); but see also Petter (1961 a, 1972 b). Angermann (1983) considered whytei a distinct species that includes crawshayi ; Flux and Angermann (1990) placed both as subspecies of victoriae (= microtis ); see comments therein. The range of saxatilis completely overlaps the range of capensis sensu stricto, except in northern Southwest Africa, Botswana and Mozambique, where the smaller northern subspecies (subrufus) is allopatric with respect to both large capensis and the southern race of equally large L. s. saxatilis ( Flux and Angermann, 1990; Smithers, 1983).