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The
Cape hare, Lepus capensis, is widespread in the UAE, although rare
in the mountains. The species has a wide geographical range, extending
to Southern Africa, and is adapted to survive in highly arid conditions.
In the UAE, numbers have increased since the imposition of a national
hunting ban in the mid-1970s, and they can now be found close to populated
areas, as well as deep in the desert, where they form an important part
of the diet of foxes and other small carnivores, as well as of birds like
the golden eagle and long-legged buzzard. The local population was formerly
all thought to be of the sub-species omanense, but genetic work undertaken
by Abu Dhabi's Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency,
ERWDA, suggests that there may be as many as three separate sub-species
present. These await formal scientific description.
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