Sardinian Pika
From Freepedia
| Sardinian Pika Conservation status: Extinct (1700s) | ||||||||||||||
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| Image:Prolagus.png | ||||||||||||||
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| Prolagus sardus (Wagner, 1829) |
The Sardinian Pika (Prolagus sardus) was a pika native to the Mediterranean island of Sardinia until its extinction in the late 1700s or early 1800s. It was described by early Sardinian authors as "a giant rabbit with no tail", and it is believed that the Nuragici, the ancient peoples of Sardinia, viewed them as a delicacy. It and the Corsican Pika are the only two animals belonging to the genus Prolagus.
Some people believe that Sardinian pikas still live in the "wild" interior of Sardinia, and many others believe that they went extinct much more recently than scientific estimates. There are occasionally sightings of pikas, but so far none of them has been verified.
