Hares and Rabbits are relatives, they are from the same family of mammals called Leporidae, which means in Latin “those that resemble lepus” which is a Hare. Ok, that was a bit teacherish wasn’t it, can you tell I have been reading up on the subject. I shall start again.
Rabbits and Hares are related, but the hare is more athletic and is adaptable to many living conditions, and therefore has adapted to living all over the world.
Hares are very fast, I have raced one up a field and they are faster than me, it turns out they run at 35miles per hour, and I clearly don’t. They are also very athletic and can change direction at speed, and if you watch one, they will follow a zig zag pattern up the field, so not only are they fast, they are smart too as they can outwit a pursuer with this manoeuvre.
Hares can have up to 3 litters of babys called leverets, a year, with one to three leverets in a litter. The young are really cute and independent from about 3 weeks old, and are full size about 8 months.
Hares differ from rabbits in the social structure. Unlike Rabbits who live in burrows underground, Hares live alone and live entirely above ground. They scrape a hollow in the ground, which is called a form and flatten themselves into it, and rely on blending into the soil for their camouflage.
Hares do not hibernate, and they don’t store fat, so they have to eat constantly all through the winter and tend to stay in wooded area’s where it is more sheltered and they can find bark and other woody plants to eat. Eww gross fact alert, they eat their own droppings. Not something that I would want to do……. Oh my human Mum has just informed me I ate my mother’s poo as a foal, which has just grossed me out. Moving on, so after I read more about it, I understand why they do it, and perhaps I can investigate this practice more another time. So animals with a digestive system which is not very efficient, of which the Hare is one, are able to get more nutrients out of the food by eating their droppings. Also the digestive system produces vitamins B and K which is then passed with the droppings, but eating them, they can gain the vitamins back.
Hares have quite a large Size range from the scrub hare which starts out at 1.5 kg right up to the arctic hare which can weigh up to 7 kg. To put that into perspective, a bag of sugar, weighs, 500g, so hares can range from the equivalent to 3 bags of sugar, right up to 14 bags of sugar. When you think of it that way, then the Arctic Hare can grow big and heavy.
To finish off with a fun fact, have you ever heard the saying “Startled like a Jack Rabbit”, well for a start, a Jack Rabbit, is an American name for a hare. Earlier we mentioned Hares live in a dent called a Form, so if they are startled, they jump up from know where, and run away, hence the saying “Startled like a Jack Rabbit”
I look forward to investigating Eggs for you, for next issue, but until then its bye from me for now.
Hare Coursing
Hello everyone, I thought I would start off my new adventure into investigating, with an investigation into Hare Coursing. When I helped my local Policing team, Hare Coursing was one of the things I helped my officer with. At the time, I didn’t really know much about it, so this has been great for me to find out more about what I was doing and how I assisted.
Ok so to start at the beginning, with the history of Hare Coursing and it is clear that some people consider Hare Coursing as a sport and others as a form of pest control. Origins go back centuries and what started as a sport for nobility, as a way of settling an argument as to who had the better dog, developed into a pastime enjoyed by the working class. The first club was formed in 1776, by 1800’s there were 150 recorded clubs, and by the end of that century, its followers had changed from Nobility to the working class.
That’s great I hear you say, but what is Hare coursing? In essence, two dogs chasing one hare, winner is the owner of the dog who catches the hare. You may have heard the term Lurcher referred to with regards to breed of dogs, traditionally a Lurcher iis a cross bred dog, who has been bred for speed and sight, and performs well when chasing a Hare.
Hunting with dogs was banned in the UK in 2004, (Hunting with Dogs Act 2004) and fines can be up to £5000, for those caught and convicted, but unfortunately, the large sums of money that can be made due to the betting, has meant it has just continued illegally.
It happens in late summer especially on arable fields when all the crops have been cut, as this gives large open spaces in which gives the hare room to run.
So how can you help. What I had to look for when I was out and about, was:-
- A convoy of estate cars and 4×4’s, usually with only men inside and lurcher type dogs in the boot.
- There might be a group of vehicles parked by the entrance to a field. That might be a gate directly into the field, a track or a public right of way.
- People walking where I wasn’t expecting them, for example, up the side of a field that I knew wasn’t a public right of way. They may have sticks and making a noise and be flushing wildlife out of the safety of the hedges and field margins
- You might see people with binoculars, standing along a grass verge looking into a recently cut arable field.
Safety is key here guys and if you do intend to report hare coursing to the Police, I suggest you remember as much details as you can, then leave the area before reporting anything.
Scans of the article as seen in the magazine
