Lepus timidus

This rabbit has many names. In Carl Linneaus' time, it was called the Common Hare in English. It's scientific name was the same as it is now, though rather than be categorized in Leporidae or Lagomorpha, it was added to Glires, as these didn't exist yet. Nowadays it seems to have several names. Perhaps these are subspecies names lumped together. Like, I don't expect the Russian variations to be called the Irish Hare. But it's not the first animal this has happened to. It is also called the Mountain Hare, Blue Hare, Alpine Hare, Tundra Hare, White Hare, Snow Hare, and Variable Hare. It evolved in the Late Pleistocene and has modern descendants that descended from it, those being the Iberian Hare, European Hare, and Broom Hare. It has an extinct subspecies/morphotype from Russia called *Lepus (timidus) tanaiticus.* It was 10% larger than its normal variants, whichever particular form that was. Their range stretches from Scandinavia to the ends of Russia. They also have isolated populations in some mountain ranges throughout Europe and in Japan. They have also been introduced to other areas, making them an invasive species and unregistered subspecies in those areas as well. Mountain hares, like snowshoe hares, turn white in the winter, making them important for white rabbit things. They have shaggy fur. Tourists to mountains for winter sports and lodging forced them to change physically. Thus tourists have spurred their evolution in some areas. Hunting has done this as well. Due to causing another population of birds illness, they have been culled yearly in Scotland. A petition has been in action for awhile now to push these hares into protection.

There are several modern subspecies. Even Linnaeus documented a couple, *L. timidus cornutus* and *L. timidus melinus*, the Horned Common Hare and Yellow Common Hare respectively. However, these are no longer valid, and I do not know which modern categories they've split and merged into. At least one species of hare, as documented by him, was merged with this species, meaning that scientists no longer consider it a valid species: The Varying Hare, Lepus variabilis (Pallas, 1778), and its subspecies that was also considered to be a hybrid, the Spurious Varying Hare. I do not know what it was hybridized with. In his book the Mountain Hare belongs to a *Lepus alpinus*, it seems to have been merged with the creature or it is this creature.

* ainu
* begitschevi
* gichiganus
* hibernicus
* kamtschaticus
* kolymensis
* kozhevnikovi
* lugubris
* mordeni
* orii
* scoticus
* sibiricorum
* timidus
* transbaicalicus
* varronis

## References

1. ↑ https://archive.org/details/animalkingdomorz00linn/page/n73/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mountain\_hare&oldid=1146266355
3. ↑ https://onekind.scot.archived.website/campaigns/stop\_the\_mountain\_hare\_cull/index.html
4. ↑ https://species.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lepus\_timidus&oldid=9011766
5. ↑ https://www.departments.bucknell.edu/biology/resources/msw3/browse.asp?id=13500221
6. ↑ https://www.gbif.org/species/8545180
7. ↑ https://www.howtopronounce.com/europaeus#:~:text=The%20mountain%20hare%20%28Lepus%20variabilis%20or%20timidus%29%20replaces,in%20the%20north%20of%20Europe%20and%20in%20Scotland.