Ethiopian highland hare

The Ethiopian highland hare, Lepus starcki, also called Starck's hare, is a medium-sized hare of the rabbit and hare family that is endemic to the Ethiopian Highlands, ranging over the Afroalpine regions of the Shoa, Bale and Arsi provinces of Ethiopia. Its dorsal fur is grizzled, buff white and spotted and streaked with black, while its belly fur is pure white and fluffy. It is a herbivore that mostly feeds on moorland grasses such as bentgrass, goosegrass, fescue, fountaingrass and bluegrass, and it is known to inhabit restricted montane moorlands and grasslands in open highland regions. Population density has been estimated at about 0.3 individuals per hectare on the Sanetti Plateau. The French zoologist Francis Petter first described it in 1963, it is closely related to the Abyssinian hare, no subspecies are recognised, and the IUCN rates it as least concern.