The Arabian hare (Lepus capensis arabicus) has been brought back to the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve. It is the 14th native species to return to the reserve since the ReWild Arabia program began in the winter of 2022. Because it lives in central Saudi Arabia, the Arabian hare is an important part of the desert food web.
Its return is another step toward the reserve’s long-term goal of restoring ecosystems that work and can support themselves in an environment that is changing more and more because of climate change. Reintroducing this main consumer helps a key part of the food chain get back to normal, opening up energy routes from plants to animals that eat them.
On a global level, it also helps ecosystems get back to working normally. As herbivores, they graze and spread seeds, which helps keep the plants in the reserve’s environments in balance. They are a main source of food for desert predators and move energy up from scarce desert plant biomass with high ectotrophic efficiency, keeping higher-level wildlife alive. Twenty Arabian hares were chosen to increase genetic variety, and they were brought into the reserve through a program called “rewilding.
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