Status and identification of hares Lepus sp . in Western Sahara and Southern Morocco

The North African hare Lepus sp. fauna is currently represented by two species – Cape Hare Lepus capensis and African Savanna Hare Lepus microtis (previously included in L. saxatilis and has been classified under several different names: saxatilis, crawshayi, whytei and victoriae). Within the Western Palearctic zoogeographic region L. capensis is distributed throughout eastern and northern Egypt, northern areas of Libya, throughout northern Algeria and with an isolated population in the south, and throughout Tunisia (Flux & Angermann 1990, map available in IUCN 2012). Scattered populations are also present throughout the Middle East and on the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Sardinia. In Morocco, its distribution extends from the Mediterranean coast southwards throughout much of the country excluding the far southeast, and down through large areas of Western Sahara to reach its southern limit just south of the Tropic of Cancer.