Ethiopian Highland Hare

The Ethiopian highland hare (Lepus starcki) or Starck's hare is a medium-sized species of mammal in the rabbit and hare family, Leporidae. Its dorsal pelage is grizzled, buff white and spotted and streaked with black, while its belly fur is pure white and fluffy. It is endemic to the Ethiopian Highlands, ranging over the Afroalpine regions of the Shoa, Bale, and Arsi Provinces of Ethiopia. A herbivore, it mostly feeds on moorland grasses. The IUCN rates it as a species of least concern. == Taxonomy == The Ethiopian highland hare was first described by the French zoologist Francis Petter in 1963. It was originally described as a subspecies of the cape hare (Lepus capensis), but was later given a species status by Renate Angermann in 1983. In 1987, Maria Luisa Azzaroli-Puccetti also listed the Ethiopian highland hare as a separate species, although she suggested it to be a primitive form of the European hare (Lepus europaeus), and is closely related to it, due to the similarity of their skulls. She mentioned that after an interglacial period, the retraction of glaciers may have isolated the populations of the European hare on the Ethiopian plateau, which evolved as a different subspecies. Thus…