spring·hare

(sprĭng′hâr′)

A burrowing nocturnal rodent (Pedetes capensis) of southern Africa, having long powerful hind legs with which it leaps like a kangaroo.

[Partial translation of Afrikaans springhaas : spring, to leap up; see springbok + haas, hare.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

References in periodicals archive

2009) the distribution of mammals such as scrub hare Lepus saxatilis and springhare Pedetes capensis could also have a strong influence on tick abundance that would typically be unrecognised as survey attention understandably tends on focus on economically significant (and more readily surveyed) large mammal species.

Managing grassland for wildlife: the effects of rotational burning on tick presence and abundance in African savannah habitat

In Asia and northern Africa, this type of rodent is represented by the jerboas (the family Dipodidae); in North America, it is represented by the kangaroo mice and kangaroo rats (family Heteromyidae); in the deserts of Australia, it is represented by the jerboa-rat (Notomys, family Muridae) and the kultarr (Antechinomys, family Dasyuridae); and, in the deserts of southern Africa, it is represented by the springhare (Pedetes, family Pedetidae).

2 Life in the cold deserts and subdeserts

Within each territory, aardwolves construct 5-6 dens, usually by enlarging vacant springhare (Pedetes capensis) burrows (Richardson 1987b, Anderson 1994).

Seasonal differences in field metabolism, water requirements, and foraging behavior of free-living aardwolves

jaculus may have more in common with the springhare (Pedetes pedetes) of Africa or woodrats (Neotoma sp.) in North American deserts.

Foraging theory, patch use, and the structure of a Negev Desert granivore community

We weren't successful, but we did startle a bat-eared fox, and were constantly surrounded by bouncing springhares.

OUTABOUT: At home with dairy animals and wildlife

We gazed at steenbok and ostrich and springhares (resembling mini kangaroos) and learned how to identify their trails in the sand.

On Safari in the Kalahari - From the vast empty stretches of the kalahari desert to the mysterious waterways of the okavango delta, a safari in botswana offers spectacular scenery and wildlife