Rare Striped Rabbit Found in Indonesia

I realise it is Easter time around the world and the traditional token of this holiday season is a bunny rabbit delivering Easter eggs, but, isn’t it ironic that at this special time a rare rabbit has been discovered in the Bukit Barisan National Park in Sumatra.

This bunny rabbit, apparently, is one of the world’s rarest rabbits. It was spotted in Indonesia for just the third time in the past 35 years, underscoring the importance of conserving the region’s threatened rain forests, a conservation group said.

Two grainy images shot by a camera trap at night show the half-meter-long (foot-long) Sumatran striped rabbit nibbling on forest undergrowth in the Bukit Barisan National Park, said the World Conservation Union. The rare species of rabbit was last photographed in 2000, and the last sighting by a scientist was in 1972.

The rabbit is only known to exist in the forests of Sumatra, and thought to be the only representative of its genus. It is listed as critically endangered by the WorldConservation Union, meaning it faces a high risk of extinction from a range of threats, including the loss of habitat to farming.

In 1999, researchers discovered another striped rabbit in the Annamite Mountains that straddle Laos and Vietnam. Although both seem similar in appearance, genetic samples revealed the Sumatranand Annamite striped rabbits were separate – though closely related – species. According to the findings, both species have been diverging for about 8 million years.