Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus – once Lepus capensis)
- Cowbar grassland and its neighbouring fields provide shelter for brown hares (also known as European hares).
- If you are lucky, you are most likely to see them at dawn and dusk. Our trail-cams have picked up images of hares in the night on the Cleveland Way.
- You may see narrow tracks in the grassland which look like small footpaths. These are hare runs and often lead to a gap in or under a fence or hedge (known as a ‘smeuse’ or ‘smout’) which the hare regularly uses.
- Female hares are known as ‘jills’ or ‘does’ and the males are ‘jacks’ or ‘bucks’. They need open spaces for safety and a rich, varied diet of plants and herbs so Cowbar is a very important habitat for them, making it vital to limit traffic and maintain plant diversity.
- Hares’ ears are black tipped and longer than the ears of rabbits. They are larger than rabbits with more slender, muscular hind legs. Rabbits’ heads are rounder. The hare’s top lip is split to the nose.
- “The hare has the ears of a donkey, the golden eyes of a lion, the chiselled face of a horse, and the legs of a lurcher.” John Lewis-Stempel ‘The Private Life of the Hare’
- Hares are generally solitary and do not live in burrows. They have no one home. They use grassland, shrubs and crop fields for cover. They rely on their colouring for camouflage and when they are threatened, they run for their lives.
- A hare can reach speeds of up to 48mph. It is one of the fastest land mammals in Britain.
- It’s large heart and turbinate bones in its nose help the hare to maximise oxygen intake to fuel its great speed.
- By day, hares shelter in shallow depressions in grass or earth. These are known as ‘lairs’ or ‘forms’. The locations of these are chosen to give shelter but also a view of danger.
- Hares rest facing into the wind so they can scent any threat. Their eyes are set well back in their heads giving an almost 360 degree field of vision. Their ears will swivel to pick up important sounds.
- Hares have to be constantly vigilant and will only sleep deeply for a few minutes at a time.
- They breed all year round but the prime mating season is in spring as the days lengthen. The ‘boxing’ ritual is often the jill hare fighting off the jack who has been pursuing her too persistently.
- Three litters a year of two ‘leverets’ is standard. Each leveret is born with fur and eyes open and a day or two after birth, is taken to hide separately in its own form for safety. The mother hare visits each one at sunset to let it suckle for a few minutes on her rich milk while she listens for danger. Her ears can pick up a footfall a couple of fields away.
- The less contact she has with her leverets, the less likely the mother hare is to lead predators to them.
- Hares are considered mystical creatures and appear in a worldwide range of ancient cultures and religions – often associated with the east, with dawn, with fertility, witchcraft, shape shifting and the moon. The circular ‘three hares’ symbol is found in many cultures and religions throughout history and all over the world. You can read more here:
- The Three Hares Project (chrischapmanphotography.co.uk)
- The Anglo Saxon goddess Ostara (Celtic Eostre) had a white hare she had transformed from a bird, which laid the brightly coloured eggs of new life.
- In Ancient Egypt the hare was used as a hieroglyph for the word denoting ‘existence’.
- The familiar character known as ‘Bre’r Rabbit’ in the American stories originated in African hare stories brought via the slave trade to America and combined with Native American tales of trickster rabbits.
- Brown hares in the UK have decreased by up to 80% in the last century due to loss of habitat, destruction of hedgerows, uses of pesticides and heavy mowing machinery, large scale crop farming and autumn sowing as well as hunting.
- The hare has been given priority status under the UK Biodiversity Plan. However, it is the only game species in England, Wales and most parts of Europe not protected by a closed hunting season. Hares can legally be shot throughout the year, including during the breeding season, leaving young hares (leverets) to starve in the fields.
- Poaching and hare coursing are illegal though, and should be reported to the police. Sadly, we know that at least one visitor to Cowbar brings a lurcher which is released to hunt hares. We regularly find the carcasses of young hares which have been killed by free roaming dogs.
- A sighting of a live, healthy hare is a privilege and a gift and we are lucky to have them living on Cowbar.
