by Kevin Strauss

We all know that snow can create a “fairytale” landscape in the northland as snow covered fir trees and knee deep snow drifts decorate our winter landscape. But winter is also a time for fairytale characters, like the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Of course our white rabbits aren't “late for a very important date,” they are just feeding on twigs and buds in the winter woods.

Our white “rabbits” are actually snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus). Hares are related to rabbits, but generally have larger bodies and fewer offspring in each litter. Snowshoe hares are 17-20 inches long and weight about four pounds. Some people also call them the “varying hare” because they change color in the late fall or early winter. In the summer they are brown, but as the days get shorter, their fur changes to snowbank white giving them a great set of camouflage.

I saw my first hare of the season on Monday evening when it crossed the road in front of me and bolted into the woods. Like many northwoods animals, snowshoe hares are crepuscular animals, they are most active at dawn and dusk.

A hare uses its large ears to listen for danger. If it hears a fox or lynx creeping up, it freezes, hoping that the predator will walk by. But if that lynx gets “too close” then the hare takes off with a blast of speed. Snowshoe hares can run up to 30 m.p.h., often running in a zig-zag pattern to evade a lynx. They can also cover 12 feet in a single bound!

Snowshoe hares set up one-acre territories (about the size of a football field) in the forest, seldom leaving their home area. They prefer shrubby woods like alder thickets and fir woods where they can find cover from their coyote, wolf, lynx and fox enemies. The shrub cover also protects them from aerial predators like great horned owls. During the warm weather, snowshoe hares feed on leaves and seeds, but now with the snow on the ground, they switch to a diet of broadleaf (aspen, birch, willow) bark and twigs. Because their bodies are so efficient at digesting food, hares unlike other northwoods mammals, don't put on any fat for the winter. They just keep eating all winter long. They can survive on tree bark all winter long. Even though snowshoe hare are generally considered herbivores (plant eaters), there are reports that they will also eat carrion (dead animals), on occasion.

Snowshoe hares also give us some of our most distinctive animal signs of the winter. Their easily-identified “hopper” tracks let us know that they are nearby, probably hiding in nearby shrubbery. The hare's “snowshoe” hind feet leave big oval tracks in the snow while it's front feet leave round tracks in the snow. Hares also leave round brown scats (droppings) and either yellow or pink urine in the snow.

So the next time your are out for a walk, don't worry if you see a white rabbit, you're not “seeing things.” It is all just part of the magic of the northwoods in winter.

The Ely Timberjay