Affiliate Disclaimer AnimalCorner.co.uk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. The European hare (Lepus europaeus), also known as the brown hare, is a species of hare native to Europe and parts of Asia. [5] They may have been introduced to Britain by the Romans (circa 2000 years ago). In comparison to the rabbit, it … [14], Sixteen subspecies are listed in the IUCN red book, following Hoffmann and Smith (2005):[1], Twenty-nine subspecies of "very variable status" are listed by Chapman and Flux in their book on lagomorphs, including the subspecies above (with the exceptions of L. e. connori, L. e. creticus, L. e. cyprius, L. e. judeae, L. e. rhodius, and L. e. syriacus) and additionally:[5], The European hare, like other members of the family Leporidae, is a fast-running terrestrial mammal; it has eyes set high on the sides of its head, long ears and a flexible neck. After this hiatus, the size and activity of the males' testes increase, signalling the start of a new reproductive cycle. [5] According to a study done in the Czech Republic, the mean hare densities were highest at altitudes below 200 metres (660 ft), 40 to 60 days of annual snow cover, 450 to 700 millimetres (18 to 28 in) of annual precipitation, and a mean annual air temperature of around 10 °C (50 °F). Sexual maturity for the European hare is acheived between 8 months and a year in age, according to AD, and breeding occurs from February to September. Citing folk Easter customs in Leicestershire, England, where "the profits of the land called Harecrop Leys were applied to providing a meal which was thrown on the ground at the 'Hare-pie Bank'", the 19th-century scholar Charles Isaac Elton proposed a possible connection between these customs and the worship of Ēostre. Electric eels are infamously known for the enormous electrical jolt they use to paralyze their prey. It is a European member of the Mustelidae or weasel family and is typical of freshwater otters. [62][63] Hare can also be cooked in a casserole. [48] In his 19th-century study of the hare in folk custom and mythology, Charles J. Billson cites folk customs involving the hare around Easter in Northern Europe, and argues that the hare was probably a sacred animal in prehistoric Britain's festival of springtime. These have been associated with the intensification of agricultural practices. But did you know these freshwater creatures are not actually eels? The young have an average weight of around 130 grams (4.6 oz) at birth. Amazing Facts About the Brown Hare. [63][65], The European hare has a wide range across Europe and western Asia and has been introduced to a number of other countries around the globe, often as a game species. The jackrabbits spend the winter months browsing on saplings and buds that grow in and around fence lines, red willow swamps, and new growth hardwoods. In general it is considered moderately abundant in its native range,[13] but declines in populations have been noted in many areas since the 1960s. Arctic hares can clock speeds of up to 40 miles an hour thanks to the taller hind legs that make the animals slightly larger than rabbits. [19], The fur colour is grizzled yellow-brown on the back; rufous on the shoulders, legs, neck and throat; white on the underside and black on the tail and ear tips. In Britain, the 2004 Hunting Act banned hunting of hares with dogs, so the 60 beagle packs now use artificial "trails", or may legally continue to hunt rabbits. [34], European hares have both external and internal parasites. [28] When eating twigs, hares strip off the bark to access the vascular tissues which store soluble carbohydrates. Their feet are thickly padded with fur. [50] The mad hare reappears in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, in which Alice participates in a crazy tea party with the March Hare and the Mad Hatter. Young hares can be roasted; the meat of older hares becomes too tough for roasting, and may be slow-cooked. The Best 20 Gallon Fish Tank Guide – 2021, The Best Aquarium Vacuum Buyers Guide – 2021, The Best Goldfish Food Buyers Guide – 2021, The Best Aquarium Rock Buyers Guide – 2021. It is among the largest hare species and is adapted to temperate, open country. In small gatherings, dominants are more successful in defending food, but as more individuals join in, they must spend more time driving off others. [66] The hare is an adaptable species and can move into new habitats, but it thrives best when there is an availability of a wide variety of weeds and other herbs to supplement its main diet of grasses. [9] A 2008 study claims that in the case of Lepus species, with their rapid evolution, species designation cannot be based solely on mtDNA but should also include an examination of the nuclear gene pool. One study found that 54% of animals in Slovakia were parasitised by nematodes and over 90% by coccidia. [2] It shares the genus Lepus (Latin for "hare"[3]) with 31 other hare and jackrabbit species,[4] jackrabbits being the name given to some species of hare native to North America. 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. Apr 6, 2016 - Explore Becka Gardner's board "Hares" on Pinterest. [31], Does give birth in hollow depressions in the ground. She then leaps away so as not to leave an olfactory trail, and the leverets disperse once more. They also seem to be fewer in number in areas with high European rabbit populations,[25] although there appears to be little interaction between the two species and no aggression. Before a female consents to mating with a male, she resists interested males by boxing them. Also Known as: Snowshoe rabbit and varying hare Description: Size: 16-20 in (40.64-50.8 cm); Tail length 0.98-2.1 in (2.5-5.5 cm) Weight: 32-64 oz (0.90-1.8 kg) Color: White throughout the winter and brown during the summer Subspecies and Distribution: 1. Intensive cultivation of the land results in greater mortality of young hares (leverets). [5][17] Other adaptions for high speed running in hares include wider nostrils and larger hearts. Its teeth grow continuously, the first incisors being modified for gnawing while the second incisors are peg-like and non-functional. They have been extending their range into Siberia. [45][46], In Europe, the hare has been a symbol of sex and fertility since at least Ancient Greece. Hares are swift animals and can run up to 80 km/h (50 mph) over short distances. When challenging a conspecific, a hare thumps its front feet; the hind feet are used to warn others of a predator. Compared to the European rabbit, food passes through the gut more rapidly in the hare, although digestion rates are similar. This is usually not competition between males, but a female hitting a male, either to show she is not yet ready to mate or to test of his determination. Arctic Hares flocking in the winter. [29], European hares have a prolonged breeding season which lasts from January to August. During this spring frenzy, they sometimes strike one another with their paws ("boxing"). The supraorbital ridge has well-developed anterior and posterior lobes and the lacrimal bone projects prominently from the anterior wall of the orbit. When food is clumped together, only dominant hares can access it. Resting metabolic rate of the desert hares was 61% of the value recorded in the European hares, and their lower critical temperature was higher. Its head and body length can range from 60 to 75 cm (24 to 30 in) with a tail length of 7.2 to 11 cm (2.8 to 4.3 in). The adaptations the Arctic Hare to survive are that they have large hind feet that allows them to move very fast across the snow. During their fifteen year life span, they can grow up to … [25], Hares are primarily nocturnal and spend a third of their time foraging. In mainly grass farms their numbers are raised when there are improved pastures, some arable crops and patches of woodland. To show interest they raise their ears, while lowering the ears warns others to keep away. This popularity has threatened regional varieties such as those of France and Denmark, through large-scale importing of hares from Eastern European countries such as Hungary. [26] Although hares are shot as game when they are plentiful, this is a self-limiting activity and is less likely to occur in localities where they are scarce. Nevertheless, the distribution of food affects these benefits. [20] Cereal crops are usually avoided when other more attractive foods are available, the species appearing to prefer high energy foodstuffs over crude fibre. [5] The European hare's fur does not turn completely white in the winter as is the case with some other members of the genus,[20] although the sides of the head and base of the ears do develop white areas and the hip and rump region may gain some grey. [5] During daytime, a hare hides in a depression in the ground called a "form" where it is partially hidden. Hares might look like rabbits but they are much larger and have longer ears and legs. European hare feed on field crops during the spring and summer months, and will forage in such fields until the snow becomes too deep. [43] Other threats to the hare are pasteurellosis, yersiniosis (pseudo-tuberculosis), coccidiosis and tularaemia, which are the principal sources of mortality. [42], European brown hare syndrome (EBHS) is a disease caused by a calicivirus similar to that causing rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) and can similarly be fatal, but cross infection between the two mammal species does not occur. It is however possible that restricted gene flow could reduce genetic diversity within populations that become isolated. The larger the group, the less time dominant individuals have in which to eat. Over longer distances, the European hare (Lepus europaeus) can run up to 56 km/h (35 mph). For the first 4 weeks of their lives they are fed by their mother… Electric eels inhabit streams and ponds in the Amazon basin of South America. [20] Hares can live for as long as twelve years. Hare fibromatosis has been recognized only in Europe, where under natural conditions it infects the European hare. [27] They also eat twigs, buds and the bark of shrubs and young fruit trees during winter. [5] In comparison to the European rabbit, the hare has a proportionally smaller stomach and caecum. They were also found to host rabbit fleas (Spilopsyllus cuniculi), stickfast fleas (Echidnophaga myrmecobii), lice (Haemodipsus setoni and H. lyriocephalus), and mites (Leporacarus gibbus). [20][35] Young can eat solid food after two weeks and are weaned when they are four weeks old. "[52], The hare is a character in some fables, such as The Tortoise and the Hare of Aesop. [57] Hare coursing with greyhounds was once an aristocratic pursuit, forbidden to lower social classes. 2 Habitat suitability maps for Italian hare (a), and for European hare (b) as computed from ENFA. The European rabbit is a less fussy eater than the brown hare: when eating root vegetables, the rabbit eats them whole, while the hare tends to leave the peel. Subsequent colonisations of Central Europe appear to have been initiated by human-caused environmental changes. Boyle responds that almost nothing is known about Ēostre, and that the authors had seemingly accepted the identification of Ēostre with the Norse goddess Freyja, but that the hare is not associated with Freyja either. This is the case in northern Spain and in Greece, where the restocking by hares brought from outside the region has been identified as a threat to regional gene pools. Group feeding is beneficial as individuals can spend more time feeding knowing that other hares are being vigilant. The European Hare is a mammal adapted to temperate open country. The testes of males begin to regress and sperm production ends in September. Fights can be vicious and can leave numerous scars on the ears. Consequently the Irish hare possesses a high number of unique genetic characters that are not shared by any other hare species outside of Ireland. Background. [25] Several countries, including Norway, Germany, Austria and Switzerland,[1] have placed the species on their Red Lists as "near threatened" or "threatened". Adaptations to life in the desert were studied in brown hares (Lepus capensis) from the Negev Desert of Israel. The European hare is the smallest mammalian species in Europe dwelling above ground or without shelter throughout the year. European hare (Z=5.957), while the reciprocal overlap was Fig. [5] Hares have traditionally been hunted in Britain by beagling and hare coursing. than mammals of the same size that use burrows, nests or dens. See more ideas about Hare, Pet birds, Animals wild. [61], Hare is traditionally cooked by jugging: a whole hare is cut into pieces, marinated and cooked slowly with red wine and juniper berries in a tall jug that stands in a pan of water. The table shows the results of a ten-year study of the owls and voles in a forest. European hares are widespread throughout Europe, where they are called common hares. [53] The story was annexed to a philosophical problem by Zeno of Elea, who created a set of paradoxes to support Parmenides' attack on the idea of continuous motion, as each time the hare (or the hero Achilles) moves to where the tortoise was, the tortoise moves just a little further away. As such, when in groups, all individuals fare worse when food is clumped as opposed to when it is widely spaced. When only the fittest male remains, the female stops and allows him to copulate. Their range extends from northern Spain to southern Scandinavia, eastern Europe, and northern parts of Western and Central Asia. Their natural predators include large birds of prey, canids and felids. [10] Another 2008 study suggests that more research is needed before a conclusion is reached as to whether a species complex exists;[11] the European hare remains classified as a single species until further data contradicts this assumption. Normally rare in hares, a significant die-off from the virus has also occurred in Spain. [30] Female fertility continues through May, June and July, but testosterone production decreases in males and sexual behaviour becomes less overt. 4.7.1 Ecology - Adaptations, interdependence, competition - Standard demand 2 – Questions Q1. BEHAVIOR / ADAPTATION The claws on the front feet of the Arctic hare are long. It is related to the rabbit, which is in the same family but a different genus. The European otter is the most widely distributed otter species being widely spread […] Rate of water turnover was 124 ml kg 082 day −1 in the desert hares, only one-half of the value recorded for the European hares. 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