Chinese hare
Lepus sinensis Gray, 1832
The chinese hare (Lepus sinensis) is a species in the family Leporidae, order Lagomorpha. Recorded adults weigh 1.51 kg to 1.61 kg. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.
Quick facts about the chinese hare
- Weight
- 1.51 kg – 1.61 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Herbivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- shrublandsrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Where does the chinese hare live?
Not recorded
What is the chinese hare?
The Chinese hare (Lepus sinensis) (Chinese: 华南兔; pinyin: huá nán tù) is a coarse-furred species of hare found in southeastern China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. It is a small hare compared to others found in and around China, and can be identified by its brown back, chest, and tail fur, white underbelly, and black-tipped ears. Its fur is not as coarse as that of the hispid hare, though the two species were once thought to be related. The Chinese hare lives among bamboo and hilly grasslands vegetated with scrub, where it feeds on green plants, twigs, and shoots.
As the Chinese hare is a poorly studied species, little is known about specific populations. Studies have only defined very small populations living in Vietnam, where it is potentially threatened by hunting and habitat loss, and no sightings have been reported in the country since the 1990s. Elsewhere, the hare can be found in a number of protected areas, and it is considered a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the China Species Red List.
From the Wikipedia article “Chinese hare” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chinese_hare&oldid=1382043643), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the chinese hare endangered?
The chinese hare is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the chinese hare classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderLagomorpha
- familyLeporidae
- genusLepus
- SpeciesLepus sinensis Gray, 1832
Synonyms Lepus sinensis yuenshanensis
Other names and names in other languages (1)
- Huanan TuChinese
Relatives of the chinese hare
Other species in the same genus Lepus.
European hare
Lepus europaeus
Mountain hare
Lepus timidus
Arctic hare
Lepus arcticus
Snowshoe hare
Lepus americanus
Cape hare
Lepus capensis
Black-tailed jackrabbit
Lepus californicus
CompareChinese hare vs European hareChinese hare vs Mountain hareChinese hare vs Arctic hareChinese hare vs Snowshoe hare
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the chinese hare?
An adult chinese hare weighs 1.51 kg – 1.61 kg, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Is the chinese hare endangered?
The chinese hare is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.
What kind of animal is the chinese hare?
The chinese hare (Lepus sinensis) belongs to the family Leporidae in the order Lagomorpha.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Chinese hare (Lepus sinensis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/chinese-hare
“Chinese hare (Lepus sinensis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/chinese-hare.
@misc{chinese_hare_2026,
title = {Chinese hare (Lepus sinensis)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/chinese-hare},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}