Southern Springhare

Fascinating facts about the Southern Springhare

• A southern springhare can leap 6 metres in a single bound — roughly the length of a car — using hind legs that make up half its body weight. Those massive thighs are almost pure muscle, with fibres arranged like coiled springs. It's not running from predators; it's commuting through the dark. Springhares are nocturnal, and those explosions of speed let them cover open ground in seconds, vanishing into burrows before a jackal even knows they were there.
• At night, a springhare's eyes glow bright orange when a torch hits them — not because the eye is special, but because of a mirror-like layer behind the retina that bounces light back through the photoreceptors twice. This reflector (called the tapetum lucidum) gives nocturnal animals a second chance to catch dim starlight. It's why cats glow in headlights. A springhare's eyes are so sensitive they can navigate by moonlight alone, steering through grass without a sound.
• The southern springhare digs burrows up to 2 metres deep with entrance tunnels that slope downward at 45 degrees — an engineering choice that traps cool air like a natural air-conditioning shaft. Underground, the temperature stays stable while the savanna surface swings 40 degrees between day and night. They spend 16 hours a day underground, emerging only to feed for a few hours after dark, turning their entire lifestyle into an escape from the brutal midday heat.
• A springhare's front teeth never stop growing, like a rodent's, but they're shaped for clipping grass at the base rather than gnawing bark. They're selective foragers — they'll spend an entire night in a small patch, carefully harvesting tender shoots and leaves, barely moving. This precision feeding means they leave almost no trace. A herd of 50 springhares can graze a hectare without visible impact, unlike wildebeest or zebras that trample and tear.
• Female springhares give birth to a single offspring once a year — the longest birth interval of any small African herbivore. The joey stays in a sealed burrow for weeks, hidden and helpless, while the mother ventures out alone to feed. This slow reproduction means springhare populations recover slowly from drought or predation, making them vulnerable to sudden changes. Yet they've survived 30 million years of African climate swings, relying on their speed and their ability to vanish underground when the savanna becomes uninhabitable.

At a glance

About the Southern Springhare

In the sun-baked grasslands of southern Africa, the southern springhare emerges as a whimsical figure, its oversized hind legs propelling it across the landscape with an endearing awkwardness, like a puppet on a string. As it bounds effortlessly, its long ears flapping wildly in the wind, this curious creature seems almost otherworldly, a true marvel of evolutionary adaptation. With each majestic leap, the springhare traverses vast distances, its unique gait a testament to its remarkable ability to thrive in this unforgiving yet beautiful environment.

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