Sardinian Pika

Sardinian Pika[1]
Conservation status
Extinct (IUCN 2.3)[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Lagomorpha
Family:	Prolagidae
Genus:	Prolagus
Species:	P. sardus
Binomial name
Prolagus sardus (Wagner, 1832)
Synonyms
Prolagus corsicanus

The Sardinian Pika (Prolagus sardus) was a primitive lagomorph native to the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica until its extinction around the year 1800. The previously disappeared Corsican Pika (formerly Prolagus corsicanus) is now considered to be conspecific with this species.

Early Sardinian authors describe the Sardinian Pika as "a giant rabbit with no tail", and it is believed that the Nuragici, the ancient peoples of Sardinia, viewed them as a delicacy. The last surviving population probably existed in the island of Tavolara off the coast of Sardinia, where Francesco Cetti mentions in 1774 the existence of "giant rats of which the land is so abundant that one will crop out of the ground recently removed by pigs".^[3]

References

1. ^ Hoffman, Robert S.; Smith, Andrew T. (16 November 2005). "Order Lagomorpha (pp. 185-211)". In Wilson, Don E., and Reeder, DeeAnn M., eds. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols. (2142 pp.). p. 194. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/browse.asp?id=13500091. 
2. ^ Smith, A.T. & Johnston, C.H. (2008). Prolagus sardus. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 6 January 2009.
3. ^ Kurtén, Björn (1968) Pleistocene Mammals of Europe. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London