The Patagonian mara may be the closest thing we have to a jackalope. It looks less like a guinea pig or a capybara (its Caviidae cousins) than like an oversize rabbit, and it hops like a bunny on steroids. The world's fourth-largest rodent, Dolichotis patagonum uses powerful and unusually long hind legs to jump, gallop, and run up to 35 miles per hour—and to leap six feet in the air when startled. The mara is herbivorous, aside from being coprophagous (meaning it holds a special place in its gullet for animal feces).

Maras are rare among rodents in that they mate for life. Once paired, they hop from tussock to burrow, the female seeking out edible grasses and shrubs, the male surveilling the savanna for dangerous foxes and grison. Only after one mara dies will the other pursue an alternate love interest.

Despite their coprophagous ways, maras are prized by humans—as pets because of their docility, and as bedspreads and rugs because of their salt-and-pepper pelts. Consequently, the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists them as "near-threatened." Competition in the lowlands from the invasive European hare (introduced to Argentina in 1888) hasn't helped, and the hare's territory appears to be spreading. In the battle for the pampas, it probably wouldn't hurt the mara to grow a pair of antlers.