Brown Hare

 

Classification:

Global Population

Description and Natural History

Physical Description
The brown hare has warm brown colored fur on its back, becoming buff on the flanks and pale yellow on the cheeks and inside of limbs. The long ears (10 cm/4 inches) are black tipped, as is the upper portion of the otherwise white tail. The powerful hind legs are longer than the front.

Height & Weight: Brown hares are larger and more athletic than rabbits; on average they are 54 centimeters (21 inches) long but can grow up to 60 centimeters (24 inches) in length. The average weight for males is 3.2 kilograms (7 pounds), and 3.4 kilograms (7.5 pounds) for females.

Natural History
Range: The brown hare can be found throughout Europe and across central Asia. The species was introduced to Britain, as well as to Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and parts of North America. It is native to open steppes and has spread following the clearance of woodland and agriculture.

Brown hares tend to live in cultivated landscapes or open fields near cultivated land. While they are generally solitary animals, their home ranges overlap extensively and several hares may be seen feeding together. There is no evidence of territorial behavior.

Brown hares feed on many species of plants, including grass, roots, twigs, bark, and farm or garden produce. They rely on an acute sense of smell and hearing, and can run up to 70 kilometers/hour, swerving and zigzagging to escape predators. Hares are mainly nocturnal but can be seen during the day, sometimes crouching down in a small depression in the ground called a “form” or in a ploughed furrow. Most activity occurs at dawn or dusk when they are feeding.

Breeding: Hares may breed at any time of year but most mating takes place between February and October. At this time, jacks and jills (males and females respectively) can be seen racing around the field, jumping in the air and boxing with one another. Boxing is normally between males and females; as a female approaches her receptive period, she is closely attended by a male. If she is unreceptive, she turns and boxes him off. Jacks will mate with numerous jills.

Females usually have three litters of young each year, usually between February and October, and winter breeding is rare. Gestation lasts for 41-42 days. A litter consists of one to four ‘leverets’, which are born above ground and with their eyes open. The leverets are left alone for most of the day until the mother returns to feed them at night. Brown hares can live up to 7 years, although most live less than two years, and there is a very high mortality of leverets.

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Status of the Species

Status
In Britain, the brown hare is afforded limited legal protection under the Ground Game Act (1880) and the Hares Protection Act (1911) and sale is prohibited between 1 March and 31 July. These laws, however, are widely flouted. Many big estates in Britain holding hare shoots in March, and the hares are then sold on to game dealers.

There are no laws forbidding cruelty to hares other than that afforded to them under the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996, which does not include hunting or coursing activities. The aforementioned Hunting Bill stands to ban hare coursing, and it is hoped this Bill will achieve Royal assent by the end of 2004.

The brown hare is a priority species for conservation in the UK and has its own Biodiversity Action Plan, with the aim of doubling the population size by 2010. Unfortunately, hare numbers in Britain are still declining and it seems highly unlikely this goal will be achieved.

Threats to the Species
Humans have hunted brown hares for sport and for meat for thousands of years; the earliest recognizable breeds of dogs were long dogs used for coursing. It was this fascination with hunting hares that led to their introduction throughout most of Europe, and more recently elsewhere in the world.

Since the 1960s however, the brown hare has undergone a decline in the UK and the current British estimate is around 750,000. Today, hares are patchily distributed and increased pressure from coursing and killing by landowners has added to the reduction of brown hare numbers in some areas. Other threats include loss of habitat, loss of habitat diversity in agricultural land (i.e. loss of mixed farms), changes in planting regimes, death of leverets by farm machinery, and pesticides.

Shooting Large numbers of hares are shot at the end of the harvest when they are still breeding. In addition, driven hare shoots are held in Britain in February and March where up to 40% of the British hare population is killed. These shoots are held at the start of the breeding season, leaving large numbers of leverets orphaned.

Hunting Hares are hunted with packs of dogs – beagles, basset hounds and harriers are all used to hunt hares in Britain. Beagles and bassets are followed on foot, and harriers are followed on horseback. The hares are hunted to the point of exhaustion, and then killed by the hounds.

Coursing Hare coursing in Britain takes many forms. There are organized meets, where two dogs are matched against each other. The two dogs, usually greyhounds, are set upon a single hare. Individual hares are “beaten” into the coursing arena and given a head start before the dogs are released. These dogs are bred for speed and the hare must literally run for its life to avoid capture. It is a brutal sport that means death for many hares; the caught animal can end up in a gruesome tug-of-war between the two dogs until a coursing official removes the hare. It sometimes takes several attempts to break the animal’s neck if it is still alive at this stage.

The most widespread form of coursing is rough coursing, where lurchers are used with the express purpose of killing the hares. There can be pairs of dogs, but often only a single dog is used. There are about a quarter of a million lurchers used for coursing in Britain, and so the impact of this form of coursing on hare numbers is likely to be considerable. Rough coursing is often undertaken by large groups of gypsies/travelers who descend upon an area and cause a considerable amount of damage to the land. Rough coursing has decimated hare populations in parts of eastern England. The problem is exacerbated because local farmers, who would otherwise welcome the hares on their land, shoot all the hares they see to deter the travelers from invading their farms.

Fortunately, hare coursing stands to be banned alongside fox hunting and deer hunting under the UK Government’s Hunting Bill, and IFAW is currently lobbying the government to ensure it reaches the statute books. Shooting hares, however, will remain legal, and as one of the few European countries that does not have a closed season for hares there is pressure on the government to introduce a closed season. The brown hare Biodiversity Action Plan specifically calls on the government to address this problem.

International Trade: There is a considerable trade in live hares for restocking for hunting, and also an extensive trade in dead hares. Many of the hares shot in Britain are exported for sale in Europe.

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Authors and Sources

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