Japanese hare Japanese hare The Japanese hare ("Lepus brachyurus") is a species of hare native to Japan. Coenraad Jacob Temminck described the Japanese hare in 1845. The species name is derived from the Ancient Greek "brachys" "short" and "ouros" "tail". The four subspecies of this hare are: The Japanese hare is reddish-brown, with a body length that ranges from , and a body weight of . Its tail grows to lengths of . Its front legs can be from long and the back legs from long. The ears grow to be long, and the tail long. In areas of northern Japan, the
European rabbit naked, have white flesh, and little sexual dimorphism. However, the two differ in skull characteristics, and cottontails do not habitually construct their own burrows as the European rabbit does. Molecular studies confirm that the resemblance between the two is due to convergent evolution, and that the European rabbit's closest relatives are the hispid hare, the riverine rabbit and the Amami rabbit. The oldest known fossils attributed to the modern European rabbit species are around 0.5 Ma old (Middle Pleistocene). , six subspecies are recognised. The European rabbit is smaller than the brown and mountain hare, and lacks black ear-tips, as