Annamite striped rabbit
| Annamite striped rabbit | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Nesolagus timminsi | ||||||||||||
| Abramov , Tikhonov & Averianov , 2000 |
The Annamite striped rabbit ( Nesolagus timminsi ) was first described scientifically in 2000. Parts of this animal were found at a food market in Laos and have since been sighted in Vietnam .
features
The Annamite striped rabbit has a gray basic color. Several dark brown or black stripes run along the back, along the sides and on the face. The belly is white, the tail is colored red.
The Annamite striped rabbit is similar to the Sumatran rabbit ( Nesolagus netscheri ) but the two species have developed separately from one another for around eight million years.
Occurrence
The Annamite striped rabbit lives in the moist, evergreen forests on the seaward slopes of the Truong Son Mountains , also known as the Annamite Cordillera, where there is no or only a short dry period. Usually it is found at altitudes below 1000 meters. Since there have been some sightings in heavily forested areas but not from clear-cut areas, the commercial use of the habitat is probably not the species’s greatest threat. The main threat comes from trap hunting.
The protection measures in this area are mainly concentrated in remote higher areas. The deeper regions and valleys are exposed to intensive hunting, clear-cutting and mining. Thus, a further decline of the only sparsely occurring species can be expected.
Research history
British zoologist Rob Timmins of the Wildlife Conservation Society found three specimens of the species in a market. The species was named after him.
literature
- AO Averianov, A. V. Abramov, A. N. Tikhonov: A new species of Nesolagus (Lagomorpha, Leporidae) from Vietnam with osteological description. Contributions from the Zoological Institute, St. Petersburg 3, pages 1–24, 2000 (first description)
Web links
- Nesolagus timminsi in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2009. Posted by: A. Abramov u. a., 2008. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
- Striped rabbit revealed in Laos forest on bbc.co.uk (English)