Seeing a hare is a very special sight, and one of the star attractions at WWT Welney. They are full of personality and not a little bit fiery! Learn more about their fascinating behaviour and lives.
Boxing hares put on one of the most entertaining and dramatic displays you can see in spring. Wetlands are a great place to watch for hares, the wide open spaces providing a fantastic arena in which to see the action. The courtship ritual involves less romance and more frantic chases, animals leaping over each other, kicking and biting, and of course, brief boxing matches.
While there are some skirmishes between competing males (jacks), most boxing bouts are actually females (jills) rebuffing the advances of overeager, or even desperate males. This behaviour, although not much fun for the females, means that only the strongest and most tenacious jacks get the pick of the jills.
European brown hares are quite solitary by nature, and don’t get much enjoyment in the company of their species. After the frenzy of courtship, hares disperse to their more usual ways. This is where the phrase ‘mad as a march hare’ comes from - it’s so different from their usual behaviour.
Hares, like rabbits, are lagomorphs. They are not rodents because they have an extra pair of small teeth behind the large incisors. Like rabbits, they use a special digestive trick of “refection”, or eating their own droppings (not as disgusting as it sounds). Because cellulose is so difficult to digest, after it’s been through the gut once, rabbits and hares eat it again.
If you’re in Scotland, Ireland or the very north of England, you might find yourself in a habitat populated by both the brown hare and the mountain hare. Only the mountain hare is native to the UK, with the brown hare being introduced by man much like the rabbit was. If you’re unsure, here are some key differences to help tell them apart:
Hares are capable of producing four litters of leverets in a good year. But later matings do not involve the frenzy of spring, and happen more by chance or devious strategy.
Newly born leverets are vulnerable to predators. So within a few days of birth, the mother hare moves her leverets to other individual forms, carrying them by the scruff of the neck, to increase security. A jill nursing her young will visit each of her leverets in turn to feed and clean them. This visit is every 24 hours, shortly after dusk. There are many rural stories of the ferocity of a jill defending her young, including fighting off foxes, and killing stoats with their powerful hind legs, which have sharp claws.
Hares are not wetland specialists, but can be seen at many of our wetland reserves. They prefer the habitat of open farmland, fenland or grassland, such as found at WWT Welney or Caerlaverock, and one was recently spotted at Slimbridge. In winter, brown hares will seek the shelter of woodland and small copses, supplementing their diet of grasses, herbs and buds with woody material.
All species of hare in Britain are declining. They are listed as priority species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. UK BAP priority species are those that were identified as being the most threatened and requiring conservation action. Changes in agricultural practices are probably responsible for the decline in the brown hare population of Britain, and in particular the switch to silage and the heavy use of weed killers. Silage is cut when leverets are still very young, and the machines get faster and faster. Also, hares are vulnerable to disease, and coccidiosis is a highly contagious infection.
At WWT Wetland Centres you’ll find stunning nature reserves full of wildlife. We’re only opening with restrictions at the moment due to coronavirus, so please check the centre page and make a booking before travelling.
Find your nearest wetland centreAs our world strives to come to terms with COVID-19 many of the vulnerable wetland species you’ve just been reading about are at greater risk than ever before.
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