Mo Ganji: Riverine Rabbit | Flusskaninchen | Bunolagus monticularis | No. 184/250 from work group 8/99

Mo Ganji turns his attention to the riverine rabbit — a small nocturnal mammal adapted to dense riparian vegetation within semi-arid landscapes — by allowing the single line to move toward essence rather than visibility or behavior. The line gathers the being into a reduced coherence, holding presence without insisting on narrative or form. In Ganji’s understanding, the line remains open, reminding us that what appears as a rabbit is also a human concept momentarily placed upon a living continuum.

Bunolagus monticularis is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List. Endemic to a narrow region of South Africa’s Karoo, the species inhabits riverine shrublands along seasonal waterways. Fewer than a thousand individuals are believed to remain, scattered across highly fragmented habitat, making it one of the most endangered mammals in Africa.

The principal threats include extensive conversion of riparian habitat to agriculture, overgrazing by livestock, fencing that restricts movement, and altered river dynamics. Because the riverine rabbit depends on dense vegetation along floodplains for shelter and breeding, habitat fragmentation leaves little room for dispersal or recovery. Its slow reproductive rate further limits resilience.

Ganji’s single line opens a space in which the rabbit can be encountered beyond elusiveness or rarity. It allows attention to rest on a life shaped by narrow margins, suggesting how existence can persist for generations along fragile corridors , and how easily continuity dissolves when those thin lines of habitat are erased from the landscape.