Hare Today
by Trevor Beer, photo by Andy Stuthridge
But let’s hope not gone tomorrow. I love hares and collect ornamental ones and even have a taxidermied one in my den watching over me in its inimitable staring-eyed magical way.
Our West Country hare is the Brown hare, Lepus europaeus, and is of the order Lagomorphs and the family Leporidae, as are rabbits. Until 1912 they were wrongly classified as rodents. The Brown hare is tawny-brown on its back with white underparts and black-tipped ears. The top side of the tail is also black and a running hare holds its tail down to show the black. Its length is 24-28ins (60-70 cm) and the average weight is about 8-10lbs (4-4.7 kg). There are records of Brown hares weighing 15lbs. In Britain they are found up to an elevation of about 1,500ft (500m) and normally in farmland and open country. In my experience Brown hares often frequent broad-leaved woodland, particularly woodland edges adjoining favoured fields, possibly for shelter rather than feeding. Hares are not agricultural pests.
Brown hares were present in Britain 2,000 years ago as is proven by fossil evidence and it is likely they arrived here when we were still joined to Europe by land before sea levels rose. They are certainly magical and unusual creatures, usually secretive and seemingly timid but they can be bold and quite pugnacious and thus seem intelligent and daft at the same time. Rather like humans one might say!
Brown hares tend not to thrive in wet areas, preferring the drier parts of Britain as a rule. There may be three or four litters in a year but the mortality rate is high, especially in wet and cold springs and summers, and also due to predation. Young are born fully furred, weigh about 3.8 oz (110g) and are deposited singly about a field in depressions in grass known as forms. They reach adult weight in about 34 weeks. When very young they are fed by the female who visits each briefly at dusk. Hares may feed in daylight, especially in the spring, but are usually nocturnal. If disturbed by man they often crouch low to the ground, ears flat against the head and ‘disappear’ in that magical way hares have a reputation for. Whilst feeding the body is usually held low, the ears flat, and forward movement is often one slow step at a time.
The spectacular courtship displays of ‘boxing’, chasing and leaping are usual in ‘Mad March Hare’ time but do occur at other times of the year, not necessarily in March.
Brown hares are not difficult to keep in captivity. As a primary-school boy I had an orphaned hare which a farmer allowed me to keep in a closed barn with straw about and hay bales. It grew quickly and eventually would come to the barn door to meet me when I whistled on arrival home from school. Holidays, evenings and weekends were a joy for just over three years or so. A wonderful friend!
Current law places restrictions on the killing of hares on moorland and unenclosed (but not arable) land of over 25 acres twixt 1 April and 30 June in Scotland, and 1 April and 10 December in England and Wales. Hares cannot be offered for sale between March and July inclusive. You may not kill a hare on a Sunday or on Christmas Day.
