RABBITS AND HARES
Lagomorpha— hares, rabbits and pikas—have two pairs of sharp, chisel-like incisors (rodents have only one pair) that grow continuously. These are used to chop off grasses and other vegetation with a distinctive, clean, angled stroke. A male rabbit is called a buck. A female is called a doe. Young are called bunnies, kits or kittens. A group is called a colony or warren. A baby hare is called a leveret.
Both hares and rabbits have long front teeth, long ears and short back legs for running and jumping. The two kinds of animals look very similar and telling them apart can be difficult. A jack rabbit is actually a hare. The Belgian hare is really a rabbit.
Hares and rabbits are prey for many animals including lynx, hawks, owls, wolves and foxes. They reproduce quickly and thus produce a reliable food source except when their populations suddenly crashes as does happen in some places at some times. To escape from predators hares and rabbits rely on speed, their leaping ability, and ability to dart around in an unpredictable way. Some rabbits can leap 20 feet in a single bound.
Rabbit meat is very popular in some countries in Europe. It usually sold cut up or frozen like chicken and is fried or roasted. Fryer rabbits are usually slaughtered when they are two months old. Older ones are sold as roasters. Rabbit fur is used make lining for clothes. Angora rabbits are famous for their soft wool.
According to PETA: Rabbits are slaughtered by the millions for meat, particularly in China, Italy, and Spain. Once considered a mere byproduct of this consumption, the rabbit-fur industry demands the thicker pelt of an older animal (rabbits raised for meat are killed before the age of 12 weeks).(5) The United Nations reports that at least 1 billion rabbits are killed each year for their fur, which is used in clothing, as lures in flyfishing, and for trim on craft items. [Source: People for the Ethical Treatment (PETA)]
Differences Between Hares and Rabbits
Hares are larger heavier and lankier and have longer and thinner ears and bodies than rabbits. With its longer legs it can out jump a rabbit and move much faster (a European brown hare has been clocked going 45 mph). A rabbit’s fur stays the same color year-round. A hare’s coat often changes from grayish brown in summer to white in winter.
Hares prefer simple above-ground nests while all rabbits except cottontails dig holes and live in underground burrows. Rabbits are social, regional animals that like living n groups. They escape danger by going underground. Hares tend be loners, living alone or in pairs. They escape danger by running away. One of the main difference between rabbits and hares is that rabbits have dens and hares don't. Hares, as a result, are faster and have sharper senses to protect them from predators.
Hares give birth to two or three litters a year. Young hares are born with their eyes open and fur and are ready to take care of themselves. They can see and hop around soon after birth. Rabbits have many litters. They go through much more trouble to take care of their young. Young rabbits are born helpless and blind with their eyes closed and lack fur. Their mother shelters them in a fur-lined nest. Hares don’t make a nest. Female European hares are only receptive for a few hours every six weeks. Males fight aggressively for their attentions. The females often pick the most persistent males.
Brenna Maloney of the National Zoo in Washington D.C. told the Washington Post, “Hares are generally more aloof, more prone to stress. They don’t make as good pets.” European rabbits are sociable creatures who often live in communities called warrens made up a number of interconnected underground dens. The warren is usually led by a matriarch and her offspring and their offspring and their offspring.
Hare and Rabbit Feeding
Lagomorphs are completely vegetarian, and have evolved a unique system for extracting the maximum nutritional value from coarse plants. The food is first passed through their digestive system and discharged as soft feces. The rabbits and hares eat these, These are then reingested and passed through again, emerging as the dry round pellets that you see in clusters all over their feeding grounds.
The way rabbits digests leaves thus involves eating their own droppings., When they are asleep in their burrows at night they excrete black sticky pellets from their anus. These are consumed to go through a second round of digestive processing. The second round are excreted outside the den after the rabbit wakes up.
Rabbit food such as grass and leafy weeds is high in cellulose and difficult to digest. Chewed plant material collect in an area of the digestive tract called the cecum, The cecum contains bacterial colonies that partly break the cellulose down. When the soft feces are ingested they are eaten whole and digested in a special part of the stomach, If they only ate their food once they wouldn’t absorb enough nutrients.
Hares and rabbits feed at night—which is why most people with pet rabbits have never seen them eat their poop—and stay in their nests during the day. They rabbits have strong chisel-like front teeth and are gnawing animals like rats, mice and squirrels. They have sensitive hearing and smell.
Snowshoe Hares
Snowshoe hares turn from brown to white in the winter and back to brown again after the snow melts. They live in the far north and mountainous areas have a 10 year population cycle. The numbers of predators that feed on them—lynx, owls and foxes—rise and crashes with them. Snowshoe hares are found throughout Canada and in the northernmost United States. The range extends south along the Sierras, Rockies, and Appalachian mountain ranges.
Snowshoe hares range in length from 413 to 518 mm, of which 39 to 52 mm are tail. The hind foot, long and wide, measures 117 to 147 mm in length. The ears are 62 to 70 mm from base to tip. Snowshoe hares usually weigh between 1.43 and 1.55 kg. Males are slightly smaller than females, as is typical for members of the rabbit family. In the summer, the coat is a rusty or grayish brown, with a blackish line down the middle of the back, buffy sides and a white belly. The face and legs are cinnamon brown. The ears are brownish with black tips and white or creamy borders. During the winter, the fur is almost entirely white, except for black eyelids and the blackened tips on the ears. The bottoms of the feet are covered with thick fur, with stiff hairs (forming the snowshoe) on the hind feet. [Source: University of Michigan School of Education, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology biokids.umich.edu/]
The diet of snowshoe hares is variable. They eat many different kinds of grasses, small leafy plants, and flowers. The new growth of trembling aspen, birches and willows is also eaten. During the winter, snowshoe hares forage on buds, twigs, bark, and evergreens. They have been known to scavenge the remains of their own kind in the winter months. At all times, it is important for hares to eat a certain type of feces that they produce. Because much of the digestion of food occurs in the last portion of their gut, in order to get all of the available nutrients from their food, they must cycle it through their digestive system a second time. /
Breeding season for snowshoe hares runs from mid-March through August. Pregnancy lasts 36 days. When labor approaches, female hares become highly aggressive and intolerant of males. They go to a birthing area, where they have prepared an area of packed down grasses. Females give birth to litters of up to 8 young, although the average litter size is usually two to four young. Litters born late in the season tend to be larger than litters born in the spring. Females may have up to four litters a year, depending on enviromental conditions. Males and females become mature within a year of their birth. /
“Young snowshoe hares are born fully furred and able to move around. The young hide in separate places during the day, only coming together for 5 to 10 minutes at a time to nurse. The female alone cares for them until they are weaned and ready to go off on their own, about four weeks after they are born. In the wild as much as 85 percent of snowshoe hares do not live longer than one year. Individuals may live up to 5 years in the wild. /
Snowshoe Hare Behavior
Snowshoe hares are typically solitary, but they often live near many other hares, and individuals share overlapping home ranges. They are active at low light levels and so are most often seen out and about at dawn, dusk, and during the night. They are also active on cloudy days. During the daylight hours, hares spend a great deal of time grooming, and they take occasional naps. They are most active along pathways, trampled down "roads" in the vegetation that the hares know very thoroughly. Hares like to take dust baths. These help to remove parasites, such as fleas and lice, from the hares' fur. [Source: University of Michigan School of Education, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology biokids.umich.edu/]
Snowshoe hares have excellent hearing, which helps them to identify approaching predators. They are not particularly vocal animals, but may make loud squealing sounds when captured. When fighting with each other, these animals may hiss and snort. Most communication between hares involves thumping the hind feet against the ground. /
Snowshoe hares are experts at escaping predators. Young hares often "freeze" in their tracks when they sense a predator nearby. They are trying to escape notice by blending in with their background. Given the hare's background-matching coloration, this strategy is quite effective. Older hares are more likely to escape predators by fleeing. At top speed, a snowshoe hare can travel up to 27 mile per hour. An adult hare can cover up to 10 feet in a single bound. In addition to high speeds, hares use skillful changes in direction and vertical leaps, which may cause a predator to misjudge the exact position of the animal from one moment to the next. Snowshoe hares are also good swimmers. They occasionally swim across small lakes and rivers, and they have been seen entering the water in order to avoid predators. /
Image Sources:
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, U.S. government, Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Foreign Policy, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated May 2016