Lagorchestes

Eastern hare kangaroo ( Lagorchestes leporides )

The hare kangaroos ( Lagorchestes ) is a marsupial genus of the family of kangaroos ( Macropodidae ). Your name they bear, because they remind us of hares on the size and the motion in part. The genus includes four species, two of which are already extinct.

Features

Hare kangaroos reach a body length 31-47 centimeters, which must be added a 25 to 49 centimeters long tail comes. Your weight is 0.8 to 4.5 kg. Their fur is long and dense, it is colored gray-brown or reddish brown. As with most kangaroos, the hind legs are much longer and stronger than the front legs, the tail is long and muscular. Characteristic of these animals are the hairless snout and the short neck.

Dissemination and lifestyle

Originally hare kangaroos were spread over large parts of Australia, today they still live in the north of the continent and on offshore islands. They inhabit different habitats such as open woodland, but also bush and grasslands.

These animals are active at night and rest during the day hidden in a depression in the ground in the shade of a tree or in dense vegetation. At night, they go in search of food, while they eat mainly grasses and herbs. They live mostly solitary.

Species

• The central Australian kangaroo hare ( Lagorchestes asomatus ) is only known from reports of the Aboriginal and by 1932 found in the central Australia skull, it is considered extinct.
• The glasses hare kangaroo ( Lagorchestes conspicillatus ) is characterized by reddish patches around the eyes. It is now the most widespread type and occurs throughout northern Australia.
• The Rufous Hare kangaroo ( Lagorchestes hirsutus ) is extinct on the mainland, but still lives on two small islands off the coast of Western Australia.
• The Eastern Hare kangaroo ( Lagorchestes leporides ) formerly inhabited the south-east of Australia. Since about 1890 this species was not seen.

The banded hare kangaroo ( Lagostrophus fasciatus ) is used despite the external similarities with the hares away only kangaroos and is in its own genus, Lagostrophus, like.