“Mad hares” are back

by KEVIN STRAUSS

We have all hear the phrase “mad as a March hare,” but did you ever stop to think about what it meant? Except under rare disease conditions, wildlife doesn’t usually act “mad” or crazy, except during mating season. In warmer climates, like most of North America and Europe, March is mating season for hares, the larger cousins of our cottontail rabbits.

But one mating season just isn’t enough for an animal that has as many predators as the snowshoe hare. That’s why hares have another mating season in mid-summer to swell their ranks before winter. Once again you might see hares jumping and kicking and chasing each other as part of the mating cycle. These competitions may insure that only the “stronger” males mate. Biologically this may help preserve the species. But right now, all this activity is just fun to watch.

Lynx, bobcats, coyotes, owls and wolves all feed on hares, but researchers think that 10-year overpopulation cycles really drive hare populations. When the prolific hares fill the woods, gnawing on trees and twigs, the trees seem to respond by putting defensive chemicals in new sprouts that taste bitter to the hares. As they eat up the accessible food in the forest, hares start to starve and slow down, making them easier prey for lynx and bobcats. As the hare population rises, so do the lynx and bobcat populations. The combination of less food and more predators puts the hare population into a tailspin that could level out at five percent of its highest levels.

Hares, like most mammals are active at dawn and dusk. During this time of the year, snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) are brownish and blend in well with the forest floor. These hares stick to dense cover like where owls and other predators have a harder time reaching them.

Hares are eating grass and forbes (green plants) during the summer, only changing to tree bark and twigs in the fall and winter when green plants are more scarce.

Hares produce an average of 2-4 young in a litter. These are “precocious” 1/2-pound animals, meaning that when they are born, they are already well-developed. In two months the young are almost at their adult weight of four pounds. Soon after that, they will be off on their own.

So if you notice hares acting a little strange in your area, it’s not your imagination. It is just the season of the mad summer hares.