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).