[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.

[12] Bunolagus monticularis has an adult head and body length of 33.7 to 47.0 centimetres (13.3 to 18.5 in), and 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.

[13] It has a brown woolly tail, cream or greyish-coloured fur on its belly and throat, and a broad, club-like hind foot.

[16] Bunolagus monticularis is found in only a few places in the Karoo Desert of South Africa's Northern Cape province.

Sanbona Wildlife Reserve is classified as a protected wilderness area, which has a successful breeding population, where it is being researched and monitored.

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

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

[15] 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.

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

In this way the riverine rabbit obtains vitamin B, produced by bacteria in the hind gut, and minerals such as calcium and phosphorus are recycled.

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

[16] 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.

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

[15] 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.

To escape predation, it remains nocturnal, spending the day resting in a form, which is a shallow scrape made in the soil under a Karoo bush.

Also, this vegetation promotes filtration of rainwater to groundwater, which is a benefit to farmers, who often use windmills to draw up water for their livestock.

[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.

[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.