The Brown Hare

The Brown Hare, Lepus europaeus occidentalis, is a brown, cat sized mammal similar to a Rabbit but with with longer black-tipped ears, a longer tail, longer limbs, and the ability to run very fast, having been recorded at speeds of up to 40 miles an hour.

It is not native to the British isles, originating in the Far East, and was introduced by the Romans, nowadays it is common and found throughout the country, even in Ireland where it competes with the native Irish Hare, and islands such as the Isle of Man and Orkney where it has been introduced more recently for hunting.

Creature of the Open Country

They are a creature of the open country, preferring wide expanses of grassland and farmland and, unlike Rabbits, do not burrow. They rest in shallow depressions in the ground instead, which are called forms, to shelter from the wind and rain. They will lie down in these with their ears flat and become almost invisible except for their large, bright and rather beautiful brown eyes. Quite often a Hare will stay put in its form hidden in a clump of grass or heather until you almost stand on it, then it will startle you by suddenly erupting and racing off across the ground at breakneck speed.

Hares are solitary and the best times to see one are in the early morning or at dusk, when they will be grazing. In between bouts of gnawing grasses and herbage they will frequently sit up to have a good look around and this is when they can be spotted as their shadow is cast across the grass by the low sun.

As well as near 360° vision they have a keen sense of smell and hearing to help them detect predators and when they are moving around a field they will stay close to the ground with their ears flat along their back, moving slowly and cautiously to remain inconspicuous.

Perpetually Pursued

The main predators of Hares, apart from Man, are Foxes, although they find it very hard to catch and kill adult hares. Young Hares, called leverets, are quite vulnerable though and are preyed upon by Foxes, Stoats and birds of prey like Owls and Buzzards. Adult Hares are usually fast enough to escape from most enemies though, in fact studies have shown that Hares can accelerate at 4.4 miles per second, even when he’s bursting out of the starting blocks, the fastest human on Earth, Usain Bolt, only accelerates at a comparatively measly 2.92 miles per second!

The speed of the Hare, and more importantly its ability to change direction within its own body length, mean that up until 2004, when the Hunting Act was brought in and it was made illegal, Hare coursing was considered a sport and Greyhounds were bred specifically for chasing and bringing them down. Large bets would be placed and in some parts of the country it was a very popular sport, mind you so was badger baiting and cockfighting and thankfully those traditions are long gone too.

Illegal Hare Coursing

Unfortunately Hares are still coursed illegally by gangs which are usually associated with other criminal activities such as poaching and rural theft and police and landowners find themselves in a perpetual battle against these gangs. They can be very threatening if encountered and also cause enormous damage removing fences and gates to gain access to fields, they will also use 4 wheel drive vehicles, usually stolen (Subaru Foresters are apparently a favourite) and cause enormous damage to fields, fences, gates and crops, making them universally hated by farmers, landowners, gamekeepers and most country people alike.

Very rarely some farmers will shoot Hares to avoid them attracting illegal coursers and also because they can damage crops if their numbers become too high, like Rabbits they will graze on crops and grass and can thin out pastures which might otherwise have been relied upon to fatten up sheep and cattle after winter.

Hares are also similar to Rabbits in another way, they are coprophagous, meaning they eat their own droppings. During the day they will produce soft droppings which they will then eat in order to extract any remaining nutrition and then at night they will produce harder droppings, called ‘cecotropes’ which they leave as a sign of their night-time resting place.

Famous for their ‘Mad March’ behaviour , this is not, as many people think, males fighting males. In fact it is when an unreceptive female shows a male that she doesn’t want to mate with him, by punching him in the face! Sometimes she will have to see off more than one as they all compete for her attention, rearing up on her hind legs and lashing out with her front legs, in a manner not too dissimilar to that of a Kangaroo. A female Hare weighs more than a male too, so the males will usually give up.

Breeding takes place between February and September and a female can rear 3 or 4 litters a year of around 3 young. The leverets are born with a full coat and their eyes open and are left by the female in forms a few metres from their birth place. Although the mother will try and distract any predators away from the form leverets will stay put and this makes them very easy for dogs to find and kill, this is another good reason to keep dogs on the lead at all times when in the countryside.

Lepus, Orion and Ostara

Lepus, the Hare, is often depicted being hunted by Orion and his hounds Canus major and Canus minor, don’t worry though, he’ll never catch Lepus as he was banished to the sky for boasting to Eos, goddess of the dawn, about how many animals he would kill and was cursed to never actually catch any! In mythology Lepus was once a bird who was changed into a Hare by Ostara, the Goddess of Spring, once a year the hare was allowed to lay eggs, this is the, somewhat bizarre, origin story of the Easter Bunny.

Hares at Play, John Clare

The birds are gone to bed, the cows are still,
and sheep lie panting on each old mole-hill;
and underneath the willow’s gray-green bough,
Like toil a-resting, lies the fallow plough.

The timid hares throw daylight fears away
on the lanes road to dust and dance and play,
then dabble in the grain by naught deterred
to lick the dew-fall from the barleys beard;
then out they sturt again and round the hill
like happy thoughts dance, squat, and loiter still,

Till milking maidens in the early morn
jingle their yokes and sturt them in the corn;
through well-known beaten paths each nimbling hare
Sturts quick as fear, and seeks its hidden lair.

(John Clare 1793 – 1864)

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