Mountain hare

Lepus timidus

TAXONOMY

Lepus timidus Linnaeus, 1758, Uppsala, Sweden.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: Blue hare, varying hare; French: Lièvre variable; German: Schneehase; Spanish: Liebre variable.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Body length 18–24 in (46–61 cm); weight 4.4–10.4 lb (2,000–4,700 g). A medium-sized hare with long hind feet and short ears; summer fur is brown and turns mostly white in winter.

DISTRIBUTION

Circumpolar in tundra and taiga habitats from Britain to Japan.

HABITAT

Common in tundra, taiga habitats, and mixed forests. Prefer transition zones with open clearings, and in swamps and river valleys. In Scotland found on heather moorland, and in Ireland and Hokkaido, Japan also on agricultural land.

BEHAVIOR

A solitary animal. During mating season, it can be seen in groups, sometimes fights upright on its hind legs.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Leaves and twigs of willow, rowan, birch, juniper, aspen, and heather; in tundra, alpine plants, especially dwarf willow, and blueberry are important. Palatable grasses and herbs are eaten in the summer when available: grasses, sedge, and dicotyledons.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Promiscuous. In tundra areas, only one litter per year with a mean litter size of five to six young, but up to four litters per year depending on the length of the vegetation season with a mean litter size of two to four. At birth, the young are fully furred, their eyes are open, and they start suckling at once.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Very widespread and abundant over most of its range; not threatened.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Important game species; may damage crops and tree plantations.

Mountain Hare[1]
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN) [2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Lagomorpha Family: Leporidae Genus: Lepus Species: L. timidus
Binomial name
Lepus timidus Linnaeus, 1758

The Mountain Hare (Lepus timidus) is a hare, which is largely adapted to polar and mountainous habitats. It is distributed from Fennoscandia to eastern Siberia; in addition there are isolated populations in the Alps, Ireland, Poland, the United Kingdom and Hokkaidō. It has also been introduced to Shetland and the Faroe Islands.

While the fur is brown in summer, in preparation for winter this species moults into a white (or largely white) pelage. The Irish race (Lepus timidus hibernicus) stays brown all year and only rarely do individuals develop a white coat. The Irish race may also have a dark/grey upper surface to the tail. This combined with the various shades of brown that the Irish hare may display could lead to observers confusing a sighting with a brown hare. In Scandinavia, the hare turns completely white.

Alternative common names include Blue Hare, Tundra Hare , Variable Hare, White Hare, Alpine Hare and Irish Hare.

The Mountain Hare is the provincial animal of Medelpad in Sweden.

In northern parts of Finland and Sweden, the Mountain Hare and the European Hare compete for habitat. The European Hare, being larger, is usually able to drive away the Mountain Hare but is less adapted for living in snowy regions: its feet are smaller and its winter fur is a mixture of white and brown. While this winter fur is actually a very good camouflage in the coastal regions of Finland where the snow covers the shrubs but for a short time, the Mountain Hare is better adapted for the snowier conditions of the inland areas.

The Arctic Hare (Lepus arcticus) was once considered a subspecies of the Mountain Hare, but it is now regarded as a separate species. Similarly, some scientists believe that the Irish Hare should be regarded as a separate species.

See also

• Hare coursing in Ireland

External references

• Irish Hare Initiative

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Lepus timidus

1. ^ Hoffmann, Robert S.; Andrew T. Smith (November 16, 2005). in Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds): Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 204. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. 
2. ^ Lagomorph Specialist Group (1996). Lepus timidus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 2006-05-12.

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