Lost in the Annals of Time

Brown hares are perhaps one of the few introduced species that people tend to mistake for natives. Precisely when they are brought to Britain is lost in the annals of time, but archaeological evidence points to an introduction at some point during the Iron Age, while genetic data suggest these animals were brought from the Netherlands or Denmark. The Brown hare was once a common sight in Britain's agricultural land but appears to be in decline, largely as a result of habitat loss and, perhaps, continued persecution from hare coursers. Today, despite remaining widespread, their stronghold is southern England and, particularly East Anglia and Kent.

– Source

See also the previous posts:
• Brown and Beyond
• No Word
• Most Famously
• The Hare in Australia

Image: Trevor Boosey.

Somewhere Today

. . . two brown hares are boxing.

The common brown hare is found throughout Europe and Africa, in open country, farmland, and woods. The hare can run amazingly fast – forty-five miles an hour at full gallop – but its sporting activities are not limited to running. When a female hare is being courted by a male, she often boxes with him.


Image and text: Somewhere Today by Bert Kitchen (1992).

Almost 360 Degree Vision

Brown hares have large golden-coloured eyes set on the side of their heads, providing them with almost 360 degree vision. Directly ahead of them is where they can see least. They have been known to kill themselves by running into an object or even each other because they have obviously been looking backwards at whatever was behind them rather than forward. This all-round vision means that from their hiding place they can view everything about them. It is a fallacy that hares never close their eyes. They shut them when they are fighting to avoid injury and also when they are dozing. In common with many other animals that are the prey rather than the hunter, they do not go into a deep sleep. They probably merely relax and nap

– Jill Mason
The Hare
pp. 49-50

See also the previous posts:
• Finely Developed Senses
• Golden-Coloured Eyes
• Amber Eyes
• The Beauty of the Hare

Finely Developed Senses

Although they may not look it, hares are physically remarkable creatures with a finely developed sense of hearing, smell, and vision. Their wide angle of view allows them to detect predators coming from anywhere around them except for a small blind spot in front of their noses.

– Source

See also the previous posts:
• Golden-Coloured Eyes
• Eyes of the Hare
• A Curious Fact

Image: Photographer unknown.

“Get Out of My Bag!”

Writes photographer Samantha Starr . . .

Get out of my bag! This black-tailed jackrabbit actually stole a granola bar package from the pocket of my backpack. When I took it away from him and zipped it inside the bag he tried to find it again. Normally the jacks are extremely shy around people. It was believed that this one had been in a rehab and got used to people and was then released to this park when it was well. It would come right up to people and nibble their shoelaces and nose around in their stuff.

For all thinking he’s too skinny and needs my granola bar, you’re wrong. The jackrabbits always look like that, tall gangly things. The preserve is abundant with lush green foliage, seed pods and grasses that the rabbits eat. He didn’t need people food and he was chewing the plastic packaging which I didn’t want him to ingest. It’s bad for them and illegal to feed wildlife in the preserve. Did you know that when you feed animals food that’s not part of their natural diet it changes the bacteria in their gut so they have trouble digesting the things they normally eat? Not good!

– Source

See also the previous posts:
• The Rabbit That’s Actually a Hare
• The Hares of the Americas
• The Mexican Hare
• Tough Dudes

Image: Samantha Starr.

Most Famously

The brown hare is Britain’s fastest land mammal. Propelled by those powerful hind legs which define its shape as surely as its long, black-tipped ears, the hare has been known to run at speeds exceeding 40mph. Added to its shyness, this astonishing turn of speed accounts for the apparent elusiveness of the hare. Sighted only rarely in some areas for much of the year, it retains a mystique long forfeited by rabbits.

In hare mythology, the hare is a creature with pagan, sacred and mystic associations, by turns benign, cunning, romantic or, most famously, in its March courtship rituals, mad. It is largely silent, preferring to feed at night or, in summer, as the last light fades from the day, a shadowy existence which adds to its mysteriousness in hare mythology.

– Source

See also the previous posts:
• Mostly Solitary
• Unhoused
• Moon-Struck

Image: Photographer unknown.

Solitary Adapter

Unlike the rabbit, the hare is solitary and does not dig burrows, but instead lives entirely above ground. It is able to adapt to a variety of habitats and so is one of the most widely distributed land animals in the world.

– Source

See also the previous posts:
• Mostly Solitary
• Unhoused
• Solitary Hare
• Hare’s Breath

Image: Photographer unknown.

Familiar

Few animals can have been given as many different names as the hare. Some are very localised and often the hare's alternative names are associated with cats. This is thought to be because both cats and hares have been linked with witches, as their familiars.

– Jill Mason
Excerpted from The Hare
p. 131

See also the previous posts:
• Creature of Mystery, Creature of Magic
• Usurper
• The Hare-Witch
• Hallowtide Transformations

Image: “Hare Familiar Nature Spirit” A5 notebook by Arabella Figg. Part of the company's “Ethereal Familiars” collection.

On the Edge of Reason

In the late afternoon, I drive along to the dairy farm to gape at the hares as a sort of downtime treat. The light is declining, and a hare comes out of the field to jink on the edge of reason by coming up to examine me from about ten yards. After all, I could be predatory.

The black-tipped ears are stone-unmoving; only the twitch of her nostrils proves that blood moves within her. For a prey animal, the hare manages a persuasive aristocratic mien. In Alison Utterly's Little Grey Rabbit stories it is Hare who is aloof and authoritarian: "Where's the milk, Grey Rabbit? asked Hare. "We can't drink tea without milk."

[My dog] Edith, in the Land Rover's cab, sees the hare's impertinence and scrabbles at the window to be let out for the chase.

Oh, dear dog, you are now matronly, and have not the chance of a snowball in Hell of catching a long-legged hare that can do 40mph, yet a solid 10 for enthusiasm I think. The hare, nonetheless, detects her intent, and bounds back through its smeuse, its hole in the hedge. Hares are haplessly regular; they are easy to poach because they always exit and enter fields by the same routes.

– John Lewis-Stempel
Excerpted from The Running Hare:
The Secret Life of Farmland
pp 86-87

See also the previous posts:
• The European Hare
• Stag of the Cabbages
• Mostly Solitary
• Strong-Hearted
• Elaborate Means
• The Year of the Hare

Image: Photographer unknown.

The Mexican Hare

The white-sided jackrabbit (Lepus callotis), also known as the Mexican hare, is a jackrabbit found in a limited range in North America, from southern New Mexico to northwestern and central Mexico. The animal is considered threatened in New Mexico, with its numbers in decline in recent years.

Most activity of the white-sided jackrabbit occurs during the night or at dusk, particularly on clear nights with bright moonlight. Its activity may be limited by cloud cover, precipitation, and wind, but temperature has little effect. Its escape behavior consists of alternately flashing its white sides when running away. The white-sided jackrabbit, when escaping, makes rather long, high leaps. When startled by or alarmed by a predator, it leaps straight upwards while extending the hind legs and flashing the white sides. In its resting position, a white-sided jackrabbit is camouflaged with its surroundings. The long hind legs and feet are adapted for speed, giving the animal lift and an ability to run in a zig-zag fashion that surpasses its pursuers. The long ears serve to locate sound, as well as regulate temperature when they are raised like a fan to catch passing breezes in hot conditions. The eyes, like those of most nocturnal or crepuscular animals, are laterally arranged, giving them a complete field of vision (360°). As a result, approaching danger can be perceived in advance.

– Source

See also the previous posts:
• The Rabbit That's Actually a Hare
• The Hares of the Americas
• Tough Dudes

Golden-Coloured Eyes

Brown hares have large golden-coloured eyes set on the side of their heads, providing them with almost 360 degree vision. . . . This all-round vision means that from their hiding place they can view everything about them. It is a fallacy that hares never close their eyes. They shut them when they are fighting to avoid injury and also when they are dozing. In common with many other animals that are the prey rather than the hunter, they do not go into a deep sleep.

– Jill Mason
The Hare
pp. 49-50

Image: Photographer unknown.

The Hare in Australia

The European hare was introduced to Australia in the late 1830s in Tasmania, although this initial attempt to establish wild populations failed.

The first successful colony of hares to establish in Australia was on the shores of Westernport Bay in 1862. The following year another hare colony was established on Phillip Island by the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria for the use in the sport 'coursing.' Hares released on the mainland thrived with limited hunting pressure.

The hare became a widespread species throughout much of south-east Australia by 1870. Spreading at an approximate rate of 60 kilometres per year, hares crossed the Murray River in 1875, where they made their way along the western slopes and tablelands of New South Wales. By 1900, hares had reached the Queensland border and become a major agricultural problem in northern and western Victoria.

– Source

See also the previous posts:
• (Potential) Troublemaker
• Edgy and Contemporary

Image: Photographer unknown.

Tundra Dweller

The Arctic hare (Lepus arcticus) is a species of hare which is highly adapted to living in the Arctic tundra, and other icy biomes. The Arctic hare survives with shortened ears and limbs, a small nose, fat that makes up 20% of its body, and a thick coat of fur. It usually digs holes in the ground or under snow to keep warm and sleep.

Arctic hares look like rabbits but have shorter ears, are taller when standing, and, unlike rabbits, can thrive in extreme cold. They can travel together with many other hares, sometimes huddling with dozens or more, but are usually found alone, sometimes taking more than one partner.

– Source

See also the previous posts:
• Snowshoe
• Hare in the Snow
• Winter Hare

Image: E.J. Perken.

Snowshoe

The snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), also called the varying hare, or snowshoe rabbit, is a species of hare found in North America. It has the name "snowshoe" because of the large size of its hind feet. The animal's feet prevent it from sinking into the snow when it hops and walks. Its feet also have fur on the soles to protect it from freezing temperatures.

For camouflage, its fur turns white during the winter and rusty brown during the summer. Its flanks are white year-round. The snowshoe hare is also distinguishable by the black tufts of fur on the edge of its ears. Its ears are shorter than those of most other hares.

– Source

See also the previous posts:
• The Hares of the Americas
• Hare in the Snow

Image: Photographer unknown.

The European Hare

The European hare (Lepus europaeus), also known as the brown hare, is a species of hare native to Europe and parts of Asia. It is among the largest hare species and is adapted to temperate, open country. Hares are herbivorous and feed mainly on grasses and herbs, supplementing these with twigs, buds, bark and field crops, particularly in winter. Their natural predators include large birds of prey, canids and felids. They rely on high-speed endurance running to escape predation, having long, powerful limbs and large nostrils.

Generally nocturnal and shy in nature, hares change their behaviour in the spring, when they can be seen in broad daylight chasing one another around in fields. During this spring frenzy, they sometimes strike one another with their paws ("boxing"). This is usually not competition between males, but a female hitting a male, either to show she is not yet ready to mate or as a test of his determination. The female nests in a depression on the surface of the ground rather than in a burrow, and the young are active as soon as they are born. Litters may consist of three or four young and a female can bear three litters a year, with hares living for up to twelve years. The breeding season lasts from January to August.

The European hare is listed as being of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature because it has a wide range and is moderately abundant. However, populations have been declining in mainland Europe since the 1960s, at least partly due to changes in farming practices. The hare has been hunted across Europe for centuries, with more than five million being shot each year; in Britain, it has traditionally been hunted by beagling and hare coursing, but these field sports are now illegal. The hare has been a traditional symbol of fertility and reproduction in some cultures, and its courtship behaviour in the spring inspired the English idiom mad as a March hare.

– Source

See also the previous posts:
The Difference | Strong-Hearted | A Curious Fact | A Unique Position | Elaborate Means | The Hares of the Americas | Tough Dudes | The Arabian Hare | The Abyssinian Hare | Eastwards from the Steppes of Asia

Image: Photographer unknown.

Stag of the Cabbages

Hares are wild creatures which have tended to live close to people on moorland and farmland. Yet even though we are such close neighbours, humans haven't ever managed to understand all of the hare's secrets. We appear to have complex feelings toward the hare – a mixture of awe, affection and fear.

To us, hares are mysterious and full of contradictions – all at once comical and regal. One minute timid, the next bold, verging on "bonkers." They are mostly solitary and nocturnal creatures.

For most of the year you'll not see a single one, then suddenly in the spring they'll appear in droves, brazenly leaping about the open countryside. Where do they come from? Where do they go?

– Zoë Greaves
Excerpted from Hare
Old Barn Books (2015)

Note: "The stag of the cabbages" is one of a number of imaginative names for the hare that Zoë Greaves gathers together in her book, Hare. Others include "the hare-kin," "the dew-hopper," "the swift-as-wind," and "the cropper of herbage."

See also the previous posts:
Strong-Hearted | A Curious Fact | A Unique Position | Elaborate Means

Images: M. Breuer/Gettys Images.

Native to the Scottish Highlands

Notes the website of the Scottish Wildlife Trust:

Mountain Hares live in Scotland and the North. They graze on vegetation and nibble bark from young trees and bushes. Hares shelter in a 'form', which is simply a shallow depression in the ground or heather, but when disturbed, can be seen bounding across the moors using their powerful hind legs to propel them forwards, often in a zigzag pattern. Mountain Hares live in upland areas and are most common on heathland; they are at their most visible in spring, when the snow has melted but the Hares are still white.

Mountain Hares are grey-brown with a blue tinge in summer and turn white during the winter – only their ear tips stay black. The Irish Hare may remain brown even in winter and its coat has a reddish tinge. Mountain Hares are larger than Rabbits, but smaller than Brown Hares and have shorter ears.

Unlike the Brown Hare, which is thought to have been introduced by the Celts during the Iron Age, the Mountain Hare is native to Britain. However, it is only native to the Scottish Highlands and was translocated elsewhere.


See also the previous posts:
• The Ghostly Mountain Hare
• Mountain and Moorland

Image: Photographer unknown.

(Potential) Troublemaker

The following article by Danielle Grindlay is about hares in Australia. It was first published by ABC News on June 1, 2014.

________________________________

If farmers compiled a list of pests wreaking havoc at their place, it’s unlikely hares would even get a look in.

But could Australia be faced with plagues in the future?

Adelaide University’s Dr Philip Stott has been researching hares for the past 20 years and readily admits he can’t answer that question.

"I don’t know what keeps the lid on the hare population, they breed well enough. It could be fox predation, for example, and if we manage to eradicate foxes, we could end up with massive hare plagues on our hands once again."

Dr Stott says he is the only person in Australia trying to understand the species’ population growth. Much of his research has focussed on three high-density areas, in western Victoria and eastern South Australia.

"They were first introduced [successfully] to 10 places in Australia. "On the western tablelands of New South Wales in the 1890s and also in north east Victoria, from about 1915 to about 1940, there were plagues of hares. Most of the population’s just forgotten about them."

Dr Stott says adult females, called 'Jills', have the capacity to produce nine young every year and eat four times that of rabbits. He also discovered hares are carriers of sheep worms, which establish inside them and lay eggs.

"A farm isn’t quarantined as far as sheep worms are concerned," he says. "You can have a wind-break, for example, with fences three metres apart and you might think the worms can’t get across that barrier. But they can, they are getting across that barrier."

Hares are officially regarded as a minor pest and therefore Dr Stott says, research funding is hard to come by. But he predicts, should the lid be taken off Australia’s population, it will only take a couple of years before farmers are faced with plague numbers.

"You won’t know in advance, you’ll just suddenly see there’s all these hares around the place. I see them as a species that’s out there and that has the potential to cause a lot more trouble down the track."


Image: Richard Taylor/Flickr.

Mostly Solitary

Hares are mostly solitary. They don't have a permanent home but move about the countryside, sleeping where they can find camouflage.

– Zoe Greaves
Excerpted from Hare
Old Barn Books (2015)

See also the previous posts:
Nesting | Life Above Ground | Unhoused | Camouflage and Speed

Image: Photographer unknown.

No Word

The common hare of England is called the brown hare. At most times of the year it does look browner than both the Irish hare and the Scottish mountain hare, but there is no word to describe that mixture of grey, fawn, yellow, black and brown which distinguishes it from the even colour of a brown cow or horse.

– George Ewart Evans & David Thomson
The Leaping Hare
p. 50

See also the previous posts:
• Brown and Beyond
• Eastwards from the Steppes of Asia

Image: Photographer unknown.