Hainan Hares that hide by day and hop around at night

By Chen Shumin / HICN / Updated: 13:35,25-January-2023

In Chinese culture, each lunar year is associated with an animal that represents an astrological sign, and as you might have heard, this year is the Year of the Rabbit. The rabbit is known to be the luckiest of all the twelve zodiac animals in traditional Chinese culture. The adorable rabbit symbolizes mercy, elegance, and beauty.

On south China’s tropical island of Hainan, there is a native rabbit species, the Hainan Hare (Lepus Hainanus Swinhoe), discovered and named by British naturalist Robert Swinhoe in 1870.

As Robert Swinhoe described in his work The Natural History of Hainan, the Hainan Hare is “a solitary animal and active at night or dusk. It does not live in burrows, but hides in bushes. It likes to live in flat, cool land with many bushes.”

Colored drawing of Hainan Hare from the 1870 report of Robert Swinhoe. [Photo courtesy of Xin Shibiao]

In 1854, the 18-year-old Robert Swinhoe was appointed by the British government to serve in Hong Kong. A master of Chinese language and history, Swinhoe, whose Chinese name was “Huan He (郇和)” , later worked in Macao, Xiamen, Shanghai, Taiwan, Ningbo, Yantai, and other regions across China. In 1873, he returned to London due to illness and passed away in 1877.

Not only a civil servant for the British government, Swinhoe was also a versatile expert in animals, plants, geography, peoples, culture, and other fields.

Early in 1868, as his service and species survey in Taiwan ended, Swinhoe was approved for a visit to the island of Hainan to conduct an island-wide survey of local bird species.

Robert Swinhoe [File photo]

He got a wild hare as a present from a son of a local official when he was in the Fucheng area of Hainan. Based on an anatomical study on the hare, Swinhoe read a thesis at the annual meeting of the Zoological Society of London on December 9, 1869, and published it in the Journal of the Society next year, where the hare was officially named Lepus Hainanus Swinhoe.

Swinhoe recorded many details about the hare native to the tropical island: “The Hainan Hare is small; its body length is less than 40 centimetres (16 in) and weighs only 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lb). Its head is small and round. It has long ears that are longer than its hind feet. The upper part of the tail is black, while the under parts are white. It has a more colorful coat than most other hares: its back is brownish black and white, its belly is white, the fur on the flank is a mixture of brownish yellow and brownish white, and its limbs are dark brown.”

In addition, Swinhoe noted that Hainan Hares were sometimes slaughtered for their skins, and were threatened by habitat loss.

Reports from the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation show that Hainan Hares were often seen in the wilds of the northern, western, and southern regions of Hainan Island in the 1950’s and 60’s.  

However, in 1996, the Hainan Hare was named as a vulnerable species in China Red Data Book of Endangered Animals. In 2021, the Hainan Hare was included in China’s List of National Key Protected Species, and recognized as a species under second-class protection.

A Hainan Hare spotted at Hainan’s Dongfang Datian Eld’s Deer Reserve at night. [Photo / Chen Qing]

In recent years, as the central and local governments have attached more attention to ecological conservation, Hainan has seen improving conditions in the environment as well as for the island’s many native species.

According to nature observers and scientific workers, more signs of Hainan Hares have been recorded at Haiwei Wetland Park, Changjiang; Huangliu, Ledong; and in the Dongfang Datian Eld’s Deer Reserve.

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