Its fur has a unique dark brown-colored stripe from the edge of its mouth up towards the base of its ears, and a white- to gray-colored ring around each eye.

[3] It was first described by Oldfield Thomas in 1903 as Lepus monticularis with the type locality of Deelfontein, Cape Colony, South Africa;[4] it was separated into its own species in 1929.

It typically has a dark brown stripe running from the lower jaw over the cheek and upwards towards the base of the ears and a white ring around each eye.

The riverine rabbit prefers to occupy areas of dense vegetation in river basins and shrubland.

It feeds on the dense shrubland, and the soft soil allows for it to create burrows and dens for protection, brooding young, and thermoregulation.

The riverine rabbit lives in very dense growth along seasonal rivers in the central semi-arid Karoo region of South Africa.

[16] They appear and live specifically in riverine vegetation on alluvial soils adjacent to seasonal rivers,[17] though studies have found this habitat to be sixty-seven percent fragmented in certain areas.

As of 2016, it was estimated that the riverine rabbit occupied a region spanning only 86 square kilometres (33 sq mi).

Removal of the natural vegetation along the rivers and streams prevent the rabbits from being able to construct stable breeding burrows.

The breeding season takes place between August and May, wherein females will make a grass- and fur-lined nest in a burrow, blocking the entrance with soil and twigs to keep out predators.

[14] When grasses are available during the wet season, they are the rabbit's preferred food, but most of the time the diet of Bunolagus monticularis is restricted to the flowers and leaves of dicotyledons in the Karoo Desert.

These include species in the families Asteraceae, Amaranthaceae, and Aizoaceae,[21] particularly salt-loving plants such as the salsola and lycium that grow along seasonal rivers in the desert.

Aside from their conventional food intake, they also consume soft day-time droppings that come directly from the anus in the process known as cecotrophy.

It bears its young underground for protection, relying on soft soil in the flood plains of its habitat to construct its breeding burrows.

[16] The offspring that the rabbit produces, one to two per litter, are born altricial, or bald, blind, and helpless, and weighs from 40 to 50 grams.

[5] The low breeding rate of only one to two offspring per year is unlike most other rabbits and has led to attempts to increase numbers of this endangered species.

[16] To escape predation, the riverine rabbit makes use of forms during the day to stay hidden—shallow depressions in the soil made under vegetation.

[2] The decline in the population is largely due to the alteration of its habitat as over half of it has been rendered unable to support the rabbit since 1970.

The reason for this is largely due to the use of land for agriculture, causing the unique needed environment of the riverine rabbit to be destroyed.

Another ongoing threat to the rabbit is how the isolated groups are divided up because fields in the area often have fencing which is impermeable to this species, designed to keep out jackals.

[6] An additional threat to the species is found in how the remaining land left that supports it is being damaged by climate change.

[23] One location being monitored is Sanbona Wildlife Reserve, a protected wilderness area with a successful breeding population where the species is being researched.

[6] A 2016 assessment noted that there were increased sightings of the species within its extent of occurrence, and that camera traps and further observations were needed to confirm the spread of subpopulations in regions south and eastward of the rabbit's native range.