Appearance
The Cape Hare is a typical hare, with well-developed legs for leaping and running, and large eyes and ears to look out for threats from its environment. There is usually a white ring around the eye. It has a fine, soft coat which varies in colour from light brown to reddish to sandy grey. Unusually among mammals, the female is larger than the male; this phenomenon is called sexual dimorphism.
Status
Because of its large range, the Cape Hare is evaluated by IUCN as "Least Concern", although the population trend is decreasing.Habitat
It may be found in macchia-type vegetation, grassland, bushveld, and semi-desert areas.The Cape Hare is a herbivore, typically eating grass and shrubs of various types. Coprophagy, the consumption of fecal material, is a common behaviour amongst rabbits and hares. This habit allows the animal to extract the maximum nourishment from its diet, and microbes present in the pellets also provide nutrients.Like other hares, they are fast. The only predator which is capable of outrunning them is the cheetah. All other predators are ambush and/or opportunistic hunters; examples of these are leopards, caracals, and black-backed jackals.
After a 42-day-long pregnancy, the female gives birth to from one to three young, termed leverets, per litter and may have as many as 4 litters per year. A characteristic of hares which differentiates them from rabbits is that the young are born precocial; that is, the young are born with eyes open and are able to move about shortly after birth. The Cape Hare is no exception in this regard.
References:
Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.
