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There is a need to split hairs when it comes to identifying rabbits from hares (pun intended, by all means). We urge you to keep your hair on as we guide you through the not so subtle differences which sets rabbits and hares apart. Unfortunately, chomping down on carrots and greeting people with the classic “Ehhh, what’s up Doc?” prior to going around creating Loki-level havoc is not one of these differences. 

The main point is to know that there are no wild rabbits in Sri Lanka. Those cuddly fluffballs you croon over and whisper sweet nothings to at pet shops and farms, are domesticated breeds. What we do have, stomping about in ever prescient and palpable anxiousness and nervousness that would drive a therapist up the wall, are wild hares.

Black-naped hare ©N. A. Naseer / http://www.nilgirimarten.com
Common Hare – ©Diego Delso / delso.photo / License CC BY-SA

Hares are comparatively bigger and leaner than rabbits (size can not be a reliable metric as there are pet rabbits the size of IKEA coffee tables) and generally tend to have longer ears and stronger legs. Hares can run real fast because they inhabit open spaces (That’s why the fable is about the tortoise and the hare and not about the rabbit). 

©notesonzoology.com

Hares are mainly nocturnal (though it is not uncommon to see them during daylight hours) and during the day they usually keep a low profile using their fur coats to blend in really well with their surroundings. They also make sure to make little to no sound unless injured, and have been observed to communicate with other hares by drumming their feet on the ground. Like their name of the subspecies that’s found in Sri Lanka implies, the back of their necks (nape) are black. When they lie down and make a loaf, the nape becomes not that visible.

Unlike rabbits who live in underground “warrens”, hares have a sort of nest made of a dry bed of coarse grass called a “form”. These forms often expose hares to nearby predators, so they have to be ever vigilant (which explains their constant neurotic state that makes Courage the Cowardly Dog look sane).

A hare’s form – ©Des Colhoun / geograph.org.uk
Rabbit warrens – ©Chris Eilbeck / geograph.org.uk

The diet of black-naped hares mainly comprises grasses, leaves, herbs, fruit and seeds. They also have the habit of performing coprophagy, a wonderful word derived from the Greek copros, “feces” and phagein, “to eat”… Basically, they eat their own poop. Why? Well it’s certainly not because one hare took something another angry hare said, quite literally! They engage in coprophagy because their stomachs aren’t capable of  digesting most of the plant material they ingest. So, by literally eating their own feces, they are able to absorb the much needed nutrients from the ingested plant materials, which were not absorbed the first time around. 

We all learned in our primary school days about how much the “Haawaa / හාවා” (as it is called in Sinhala, also a blanket term for both rabbits and hares in Sri Lanka) loves to eat the three-flower beggarweed (Grona triflora) or “Undupiyaliya / උඳුපියලිය”. Actually there is no recorded evidence that it prefers to gorge on this plant like Garfield loves lasagna. Also, many an Asian folklore states that there is a rabbit on the moon. This is a myth that  originated in China and spread to other Asian cultures, while Europeans believe that there is a man on the moon, who was banished there for some crime.

Hare or Man? ©Zeimusu / Wikimedia Commons
Three-flower beggarweed ©Dinesh Valke / Ankuca-pati

Hares are solitary animals and prefer to stay that way unless they are rearing their young. They are fecund, which means that they can give birth to a large litter at one time, which gave rise to the expression “breeding like rabbits” (although in this case it should be hares). Newborn hares are called “leverets.” Leverets are born precocial (which means that a newborn is able to feed itself and move independently, immediately after birth) and with a full coat of fur. This can be construed as an evolutionary adaptation to the fact that their “forms” offer next to no protection, as opposed to the “warrens” (talk about leverets having evolutionary leverage).

Leverets ©Autumnalis / Wikimedia Commons

They have an island wide spread and so far the main threats they face are habitat destruction and poaching, where the latter has become the most prominent threat. Makeshift snares set up to catch hares can end up costing the life of other animals as well, as snares do not discriminate. They fulfill the role that nature has bestowed on them, and it’s up to us to raise awareness, ensuring their safety and freedom for days to come.

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Cats, in all shapes and sizes, in all degrees of character, and in every perceivable habitat, represent an integral part of human existence. Nearly all cat parents can attest to one fact. Whenever your beloved ball of fur starts sounding like a high-quality trimmer on full blast, that makes anyone within the vicinity go “awww” in unison, with a little bit of “isn’t he adorable” and a sprinkle of “I think he likes you” thrown into the mix. All in all, purring can bring out the nurturing instincts of humans. But, when one of their distant African cousins decides to roar, on full blast (given ideal conditions), a lion’s roar can be heard 8 kilometers away. Putting that into a Sri Lankan/Colombo context, if a lion decides to roar from Liberty Plaza, you should hear it around the Dehiwala Flyover. Upon hearing such a roar, everyone within proximity would be going, “Oh my God! We’re going to die” or “I should have worn my brown pants” and all that.

Naturally, purring has become an overused (but beloved) cliché in most aspects of life. Mechanics and motor vehicle aficionados speak of how a finely tuned, meticulously designed engine can “purr” into life. Some know how to “purr” the right way, to get what they want. All these things, prove one thing: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity pays to superiority. I’m pretty sure Oscar Wilde was looking at his cat when he came up with that absolute banger of a quote. Cats are superior like that, and that’s a fact.

So, now it’s time for us to channel our inner 4-year-old because it’s time to ask the right questions. What is purring? What is roaring? What’s the difference? Why am I reading this instead of attending to my deadlines? Well, let’s find out!

Let’s turn our attention towards purring, first. Our journey starts with the hyoid apparatus. Apart from having a name that looks like a vowel salad, the hyoid bone is the part of the feline anatomy that helps with their distinct vocalizations. It supports the tongue and larynx (voice box) and is shaped like the letter “H,” which forgot to duck when going under a low beam (bent H shape). Humans do not have a hyoid “apparatus” as such, but a single hyoid bone. The hyoid apparatus, on the other hand, has nine components (Pérez et al., 2010).

The location and anatomy of the hyoid bone
© 2013 OpenStax College
The hyoid apparatus of a horse
© 1906 The horse, its treatment in health and disease with a complete guide to breeding, training and management

Now, let’s take the majestic lion, the supposed “king” of the jungle (no self-respecting “king” would sleep close to 20 hours a day, ambling around, and yawning wide, while the lionesses do all the work) as an example. Now the hyoid apparatus that is found in a lion, happens to be incompletely “ossified.” As in, it’s not a collection of several solid pieces of bone banded together. One component, especially the epihyoid, if we are to be specific, is ligamentous (think of two chain links connected by a flexible band).

Image (a) the hyoid apparatus of a tiger (Panthera tigris) / Image (b) the hyoid apparatus of a caracal (Caracal caracal) – note the structure of the epihyoid, which is marked in purple (above) and deep blue (below)
© 2023 Journal of Morphology Volume 284 Issue 10 e21627

Because the hyoid apparatus is incompletely ossified in the Panthera genus (The genus to which Lions, Tigers, Jaguars, and Leopards belong), it allows for more space for the vocal tract to be elongated. Which, in turn, means more area for air traveling through it. Plus, their vocal cords (or folds, to be exact), are square, as opposed to the triangular-shaped vocal cords found in humans. Because of these specific anatomical arrangements, they can roar, without exerting much effort from the lungs. But, they can’t purr. Also, a lion’s roar on full blast can clock somewhere around 114 decibels. Because anything above 85 decibels is deemed hazardous to humans, maybe a lion roar isn’t the best thing to use as an alarm tune.

When you consider cats like fishing cats and jungle cats (or as the above image depicts, a caracal), they have a completely ossified hyoid apparatus. That is, the epihyoid is not ligamentous and is rigid. This, in turn, paves the way for a comparatively shorter vocal tract as compared to the Panthera genus, which in turn makes them incapable of roaring, but capable of purring. When air passes through the vocal cords of a cat, it causes the rigid hyoid apparatus to resonate (like a tuning fork. Or just hit your head with a rice cooker lid, same effect), which in turn creates a low-frequency rumble, which is what we call, purring. This can happen when they inhale and exhale.

Also, this anatomical arrangement gives them the ability to make some truly adorable sounds (like a cheetah’s adorable meow or the “disgruntled Donald Duck at Pettah Market” vocalizations that fishing cats make), which in turn makes us forget for a moment that these are apex predators in their given ecosystems and we are nothing but walking meat bags to them. So go all googly-eyed at a reel on your phone and croon all you want, but leave them be and respect their space, everywhere else.

Those of the Panthera genus were called big cats based on their ability to roar. The rest, who can purr, were classified as small cats. Now even the most visually challenged person can see that a cheetah and a cougar (Puma, Mountain Lion, etc, Not anything else! Tsk tsk tsk…) are “big” cats. But because they got the evolutionary short straw, they can’t roar, so they are not classified as big cats.

As with everything, there are exceptions. In this case, it happens to be snow leopards. Even though they are classified as big cats and put in the Panthera genus (which has more to do with cranial features and will be something we’ll cover in a future article), and even though they have incompletely ossified hyoid apparatus, cannot roar. Instead, they are known to make a non-aggressive puffing sound called a “chuff.”

The exceptions don’t end here. According to recent studies, even big cats like lions and leopards are known to do a version of a purr, only during oestrus (when they’re ready to mate and start to ovulate), and during copulation (when they are mating). Then came the claim that those vocalizations cannot be stated as true purring, but are variations of other vocalizations attributed to them (like gurgling or growling, which can sound like purring). Remember how we told you that purring can happen both during inhale and exhale? Well, some experts put forward a claim that supposed lion and jaguar “purrs” only happened during the exhale, so no chance!

Biology is an exact science, which is built on exact classification. So, there is no room for any ifs and buts. If there are any ‘if’s and ‘but’s and ‘how in tarnation?’ then it paves the way for another way of classification. That’s how it is and will be. So, if there is the tiniest bit of deviation from what is considered true purring, then it is not purring. So, what biologists today agree on is that only the families Felidae, and Viverridae, are capable of true purring. This will be so until some other discovery brings forth a whole new perspective. That is the beauty of science, where the only constant is change. Change with the times, change with the knowledge.

So the next time your cat purrs to psychologically manipulate you into giving it more treats, you know what happens inside that fluffbox that you love so very much!

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Pied kingfishers (Ceryle rudis) are a minimalist’s wet dream. They pack up so much suave and swag for a bird with a two-tone (which is what pied means, bi-colored and not getting a pie thrown in your face) color palette, it’s just ridiculous. They are that beautiful. Out of the seven species of kingfisher found in Sri Lanka, they are the third most common (more or less) which is the same for their worldwide distribution where they are found from sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia from Turkey to India to China. Apart from their large distribution, they tend to prefer a more permanent home. They do migrate short distances depending on seasons but do not undertake continent-spanning migrations like most birds.

They have no need to hunt on land as their prey is entirely or mostly aquatic (small fish, crustaceans, aquatic insects, small frogs, etc). So, like hummingbirds, they have become adept at hovering above a stationary point and when you look at videos of them hovering, you can clearly see that only their wings move and the head is motionless and the body is positioned at a roughly 45-degree angle to the water surface. The wings move in a figure-eight position (like the infinity symbol) so they can create the lift they need to be airborne and their wings move at a rate of 10 movements per second! 

Pied Fisher exiting the water with a fish. Photograph by Anjallee Prabhakaran.

This high energy output makes them voracious eaters and they need to eat approximately 50% of their body weight, every day, to survive. They can cover large bodies of water without the constant need for a perch close by because of their amazing hovering skills (this is called “aerial perching”). They hover over the waterline, sometimes fifty feet up and once they lock down their prey (they have this amazing ability to compensate for the effects of refraction caused by water and pinpoint their prey exactly), they dive beak first (like a guided missile) and snatch their prey and gulp it down mid-flight or would take it to the perch to stun it before gulping head first (The reason why birds swallow a fish head first is because that way, the fish scales won’t irritate their insides while it travels down to the stomach).

When they would finally perch on a nearby branch, they would bob their heads up and down and start gossiping with the neighbors about the day (gets as loud as the manning market on a Saturday noon). They are very gregarious (loves company) and would hang out in small groups. Also, it is not unlikely to see large roosts at night. Males and females look alike but easy to tell them apart because of the bands on their chests. Males have a thick band on top and a thin one below and females only have one thick band which is sometimes broken down in the middle.

Photographs by Sayuru Imesh.

Like their common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) cousins, pied kingfishers make their nests on earthy banks closer to a water source. Both sexes put their backs (and beaks) into making the tunnel and it usually measures about 1m in length. Then the female lays about four to 5 eggs and the male helps with the incubation and the feeding of the female throughout the whole process. Because of their sociable nature, other members of the group would willingly help parents to look after their chicks (which is called cooperative breeding). Up to four “nannies” would volunteer their services and usually, the nannies in question are adults who failed to raise their own chicks or the parent’s adult kids from a previous litter. Guess it is family first for these critters (Somewhere, Dom Toretto sheds a tear).