The broom hare (''Lepus castroviejoi'') is a species of

hare Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores and live Solitary animal, solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are precociality, able to fend for themselves ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to northern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It was described in 1976 as separate from the Granada hare. It is classified as vulnerable by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

Taxonomy

The species was only described as distinct in 1976; previously, it had not been distinguished from the Granada hare. Little is known about the feeding, reproductive, or behavioural habits of the broom hare, but they are believed to be similar to those of the Granada hare. Taxonomically, the species is close to the Corsican hare; the two are thought to have had a

common ancestor Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. According to modern evolutionary biology, all living beings could be descendants of a unique ancestor commonl ...

in the

Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as the Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division ...

Description

The broom hare body length ranges from . Its

tail The tail is the elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolution, evolved to los ...

grows to lengths of . Its front legs grow from and the back legs can grow from . The

ear In vertebrates, an ear is the organ that enables hearing and (in mammals) body balance using the vestibular system. In humans, the ear is described as having three parts: the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear co ...

s can grow to be as long as . The fur of the broom hare is a mixture of brown and black, with very little white on the upper part of the body. The underside of the body is all white. The top of the tail is black, while the underside of the tail matches the body in being white. The ears are brownish-gray and are usually black-tipped. The size of the species is between those of the Granada hare and the

European hare The European hare (''Lepus europaeus''), also known as the brown hare, is a species of hare native to Europe and parts of Asia. It is among the largest hare species and is adapted to temperate, open country. Hares are herbivorous and feed mainly ...

(the other two species of hare that occur in Spain). Individuals weigh between .

Distribution and habitat

It is restricted to the Cantabrian Mountains in northern Spain between the Serra dos Ancares and the . This region is about from east to west and from north to south. It lives in mountains at elevations up to , though it descends during the winter to avoid the colder temperatures and snow. Its preferred habitat is

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

, containing mainly ''

Erica Erica or ERICA may refer to: * Erica (given name) * Erica (plant), ''Erica'' (plant), a flowering plant genus * Erica (chatbot), a service of Bank of America * Erica (video game), ''Erica'' (video game), a 2019 FMV video game * Erica (spider), ' ...

'', ''

Calluna ''Calluna vulgaris'', common heather, ling, or simply heather, is the sole species in the genus ''Calluna'' in the flowering plant family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing evergreen shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found wide ...

'', and ''

Vaccinium ''Vaccinium'' is a common and widespread genus of shrubs or dwarf shrubs in the heath family (Ericaceae). The fruits of many species are eaten by humans and some are of commercial importance, including the cranberry, blueberry, bilberry (wh ...

'', with much shrub cover of '' Cytisus'', '' Genista'', and ''

Juniperus Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

''. It also inhabits clearings in mixed deciduous forests of

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

and

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

. Its distribution is very fragmented.

Behaviour

The species is mostly nocturnal. Little is known about its diet, though it eats grasses and other plants. The ecology of the species is also little known; it may be preyed upon by mammals such as the Iberian wolf and

red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus ...

, and birds of prey such as the

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of pr ...

. Courtship behaviour has been seen to take place in April and May, but other than this there is no information about the species' reproduction.

Human interaction and impact

The broom hare is listed on the

's Red List of Threatened Species as vulnerable. The major threat listed to their status is

hunting Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

. Hunting them is excessive in many areas they inhabit, especially when the hares are isolated during the winter. The species is hunted throughout its range. It is also threatened by changes to its habitat, which could be caused by

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q430175 Lepus Endemic mammals of the Iberian Peninsula Vulnerable animals Vulnerable biota of Europe Mammals described in 1976 Mammals of Europe