Lepus (Lepus) timidus Linnaeus 1758

Lepus (Lepus) timidus Linnaeus 1758, Syst. Nat., 10th ed., Vol. 1: 57.

Type Locality: "in Europa" [Uppsala, Sweden].

Vernacular Names: Mountain Hare.

Subspecies::

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. timidus Linnaeus 1758

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. ainu Barrett-Hamilton 1900

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. begitschevi Koljuschev 1936

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. gichiganus J. Allen 1903

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. hibernicus Bell 1837

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. kamtschaticus Dybowski 1922

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. kolymensis Ognev 1923

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. kozhevnikovi Ognev 1929

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. lugubris Kastschenko 1899

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. mordeni Goodwin 1933

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. orii Kuroda 1928

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. scoticus Hilzheimer 1906

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. sibiricorum Johanssen 1923

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. transbaicalicus Ognev 1929

Subspecies Lepus (Lepus) timidus subsp. varronis Miller 1901

Distribution: Palearctic from Scandinavia to E Siberia, except E Chukotsk (Russia), south to Sakhalin and Sikhote-Alin Mtns (Russia); Hokkaido (Japan); Heilungjiang, N Xinjiang (China); N Mongolia; Altai, N Tien Shan Mtns; N Ukraine, E Poland, and Baltics; isolated populations in the Alps, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Introduced into England, Faeros and Scottish Isles.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Subgenus Lepus (Gureev, 1964; Averianov, 1998). Formerly included arcticus and othus; see Corbet (1978 c: 73); but also see comments under those species. A. J. Baker et al. (1983) found Scottish and Alpine populations morphologically distinct, as well as geographically isolated, from other populations, and Flux (1983) remarked that L. t. scoticus and L. t. hibernicus (from Scotland and Ireland, respectively), both introduced on the island of Mull (Hewson, 1991) still do not interbreed after 50 years. Reviewed by Angerbjorn and Flux (1995, Mammalian Species, 495).