It is unknown why there is a 1,000-mile gap between the Annamite striped rabbit and its closest relative, the Sumatran striped rabbit, but they diverged from common ancestors.
Very little is known of the The Annamite striped rabbit’s ecology, nor why there is a thousand-mile gap between it and its nearest relative, the Sumatran striped rabbit (Nesolagus netscheri).
Molecular analysis indicates that the two diverged from a common ancestor about eight million years ago. They may have survived in forested refugia that remained when glacial ice sheets retreated after the last ice age.
• Image | © Noelle M. Brooks, All Rights Reserved
• Sources | (Tilker, 2013c; The Wikimedia Foundation, 2021a, 2021b)
