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Lagomorpha Locomotion

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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

Synonyms

Pika locomotion; Rabbit and hare locomotion

Definition

Movement of pikas, rabbits, and hares that enable them to move about their environment.

The order Lagomorpha is composed of two extant families: Leporidae (rabbits and hares) and Ochotonidae (pikas). Leporidae consists of 29 rabbit species and 32 hare species. Leporidae typically live in tropical forests, temperate steppes, plateaus, deserts, and Arctic areas (Ge et al. 2013). They are found on all continents except Antarctica and are native to all continents except for Australia and Antarctica (Chapman and Flux 2008; Delaney et al. 2018). Ochotonidae, of which there are 30 species, can be found in North America, Eastern Europe, and Asia. They typically prefer a cold, semiarid, high-altitude environment, and often live in plateau steppe and talus habitats (Chapman and Flux 2008; Delaney et al. 2018).

While lagomorphs can be found in a variety of diverse regions, some species have a narrow habitat tolerance (Chapman and...

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Correspondence to Michael C. Granatosky .

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Khan, M., Suh, A., Lee, J., Granatosky, M.C. (2021). Lagomorpha Locomotion. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1199-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1199-1

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