Lepus europaeus
FACTS AND FIGURES
Recognition: Very long black-tipped ears; large powerful hind legs. Much redder than the mountain hare, and with a black-topped tail
Head/body length: 520-595mm; tail: 85-120mm
Weight: Average 3-4kg
Lifespan: Adult hares normally live to 3 or 4 years but very rarely can they live much longer.
Diet: Tender grass shoots, including cereal crops, are their main foods.
GENERAL ECOLOGY
Brown hares were introduced in Iron Age times, from the other side of the North Sea. They are widespread on low ground throughout England, Wales and Scotland. Although they have been more recently introduced to Northern Ireland, they have not spread far. They have also been introduced to the Isle of Man and Mainland Orkney. In Scotland brown hares are found on farmland and rough grazing to the far north of the mainland, but are absent from parts of the North West. Brown hares are replaced by mountain hares in upland areas of Scotland and central England.
Brown hares live in very exposed habitats, and they rely on acute senses and running at speeds of up to 70kph (45mph) to evade predators. Hares do not use burrows, but make a small depression in the ground among long grass - this is known as a form. They spend most of the day on or near the form, moving out to feed in the open at night. Though generally solitary, hares sometimes band into loose groups when feeding.
Breeding takes place between February and September and a female can rear three or four litters a year, each of two to four young. The young, known as leverets, are born fully furred with their eyes open and are left by the female in forms a few metres from their birth place. Once a day for the first four weeks of their lives, the leverets gather at sunset to be fed by the female, but otherwise they receive no parental care. This avoids attracting predators to the young at a stage when they are most vulnerable. Foxes are important predators of young hares and where foxes are common there are likely to be few hares. Many hares also die of disease each year.
CONSERVATION
Brown hares have little legal protection, partly because they are game animals and can be managed by farmers and landowners, and partly because they are also a minor pest and can damage crops and young tree plantations.
Numbers of hares have declined substantially since the beginning of this century, though they are still common animals in many parts of the country. The main reason for this decline seems to be a change in the way farms are run. Today's modern farms are intensive and specialised, either growing crops like wheat and oilseed rape, or raising livestock for meat and dairy produce. A hundred years ago most farms were mixed enterprises. Mixed farms have a patchwork quilt of fields which provide year-round grazing for hares as well as long crops for them to hide in. Modern cereal farms provide little or no food for hares in late summer and autumn, and livestock farms have few crops for them the hide in. Modern farm machinery and pesticides also kill many hares.
Another reason is that there now appear to be many more foxes in the countryside than there were a hundred years ago - this is probably because there are now fewer gamekeepers and fewer farmers who kept fox numbers down in the past.
Hare shooting still occurs in areas where hares are common and where farms want to reduce crop damage. Hare hunting with beagles and harriers used to occurs throughout Britain, and hare coursing events weare run be several coursing clubs, but these are now illegal (since Hunting Act 2002). Hares are very often poached, particularly with lurchers cross-bred from collies and greyhounds.
FREQUENT QUESTIONS
What is "March hare madness"?
This is part of hare breeding behaviour. The rapid chases are a dominant male driving a rival away from a female he is guarding. "Boxing" is usually a rebuff given by a female to an over-amorous male. It may actually occur at any time in the long breeding season, but is most visible in March (lighter evenings, but vegetation still low).
Do hares get myxomatosis?
No, the disease is confined to rabbits.
How can you tell hares from rabbits?
Differences include the large staring yellow eyes, reddish-brown grizzled fur and black tips to the ears of hares.
How many species of hare are there in Britain?
Two; the mountain, or blue hare Lepus timidus replaces the brown hare on high ground in the Peak District and in much of Scotland and throughout Ireland, from sea level to high altitudes.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Game Conservancy Trust's on-line fact-sheet. Please click here (link will open in a new window).
Harris, S. & Yalden, D.W. (2008) Mammals of the British Isles (4th edn.). The Mammal Society, Southampton.
McBride, A. (1989) Rabbits and Hares. Whittet Books, London.
Tapper, S. & Yalden (2009) The Brown Hare. The Mammal Society, Southampton
