What is Hares?

Information about Hares

"Jack rabbit" and "Jackrabbit" redirect here. For other uses, see Jack rabbit (disambiguation).
“Lepus” redirects here. For other uses, see Lepus (disambiguation).
Hares
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European Hare (Lepus europaeus)

European Hare (Lepus europaeus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Lagomorpha
Family:Leporidae
Genus:Lepus
Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Lepus timidus
Linnaeus, 1758
Species


See text
Hares and jackrabbits are leporids belonging to the genus Lepus. (Four other species of leporid in the genera Caprolagus and Pronolagus are also called "hares".) Very young hares are called leverets.

They are very fast moving. The European Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) can run at speeds of up to 70 km/h (45 mph). Hares live solitarily or in pairs, whilst "a drove of hares" is the collective noun for a group of hares.

A common type of hare in arctic North America is the Snowshoe Hare, replaced further south by the Black-tailed Jackrabbit, White-tailed Jackrabbit and other species.

Normally a shy animal, the European Brown Hare changes its behaviour in spring, when hares can be seen in broad daylight chasing one another around meadows; this appears to be competition between males to attain dominance (and hence more access to breeding females). During this spring frenzy, hares can be seen "boxing"; one hare striking another with its paws. For a long time it had been thought that this was more inter-male competition, but closer observation has revealed that it is usually a female hitting a male; either to show that she is not yet quite ready to mate, or as a test of his determination.

Differences from rabbits

Hares do not bear their young below ground in a burrow as do other Leporidae, but rather in a shallow depression or flattened nest of grass called a form. Young hares are adapted to the lack of physical protection offered by a burrow by being born fully furred and with eyes open. They are hence able to fend for themselves very quickly after birth, that is to say they are precocial. By contrast, the related rabbits and cottontail rabbits are altricial, having young that are born blind and hairless.

All rabbits (except the cottontail rabbits) live underground in burrows or warrens, while hares (and cottontail rabbits) live in simple nests above the ground, and usually do not live in groups. Hares are generally larger than rabbits, with longer ears, and have black markings on their fur. Hares have not been domesticated, while rabbits are often kept as house pets.

The hare's diet is very similar to that of the rabbit.

Classification

Folklore and mythology

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"How to allure the Hare". Facsimile of a Miniature in the Manuscript of Phoebus (Fifteenth Century).
The hare in African folk tales is a trickster: some of the stories about the hare were retold among African slaves in America, and are the basis of the Brer Rabbit stories. The hare appears in English folklore in the saying "as mad as a March hare".

Many cultures, including the Indian and Japanese, see a hare in the pattern of dark patches in the moon (see Man in the Moon). The constellation Lepus represents a hare. There is evidence to suggest that there was some sort of taboo regarding hares in the Proto-Indo-European culture; this is especially notable due to the likelihood that the common word for hare, *kasos, which literally means "the grey one", was a euphemism for a previous and now lost word for hare.

According to Jewish tradition, hares are among four mammals deemed not Kosher.

Famous hares

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A Young Hare, watercolor, 1502, by Albrecht Dürer.

Three hares

Main article: Three hares
Recent (2004) research has followed the history and migration of a symbolic image of three hares with conjoined ears. In this image, three hares are seen chasing each other in a circle with their heads near its centre. While each of the animals appears to have two ears, only three ears are depicted. The ears form a triangle at the centre of the circle and each is shared by two of the hares. The image has been traced from Christian churches in the English county of Devon right back along the Silk Road to China, via Western and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. It is possible that even before its appearance in China it was actually first depicted in the Middle East before being re-imported centuries later. Its use has been found associated with Christian, Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist sites stretching back to about 600 CE.

Placenames

The hare has given rise to local placenames as they can often be repeatedly observed over many years in favoured localities. An example in Scotland is 'Murchland', the Scots for a hare being 'Murchen'.[2]

References

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, 195-205. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. 
2. ^ Warrack, Alexander Edit. Chambers Scots Dictionary. Pub. W. & R. Chambers, Edinburgh.

External links

Wikibooks has an article on
Jack rabbit is another term for hare.

Jack rabbit or Jackrabbit may also refer to:
  • Jack Rabbit (Kennywood), a wooden roller coaster at Kennywood Park
  • Jack Rabbit (Seabreeze), a wooden roller coaster at Seabreeze Amusement Park

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Lepus is Latin for "hare" and may also refer to:
  • Lepus (constellation), just south of the Celestial equator, below the constellation Orion
  • Night of the Lepus, a 1972 B-movie horror film in which giant mutant rabbits terrorize the Southwestern United States

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L. europaeus

Binomial name
Lepus europaeus
Pallas, 1778

The European Hare or Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Mammalia
Linnaeus, 1758

Subclasses & Infraclasses
  • Subclass †Allotheria*
  • Subclass Prototheria
  • Subclass Theria

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Lagomorpha
Brandt, 1855

Families

Leporidae
Ochotonidae
Prolagidae (extinct)
The Lagomorphs, order Lagomorpha, are an order of mammals of which there are two families, Leporidae (hares and rabbits), and Ochotonidae (pikas).
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Leporidae
Fischer de Waldheim, 1817

Genera

Pentalagus
Bunolagus
Nesolagus
Romerolagus
Brachylagus
Sylvilagus
Oryctolagus
Poelagus
Caprolagus

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Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné)

Carl von Linné, Alexander Roslin, 1775. Currently owned by and hanging at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
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In biology, a type is that which fixes a name to a taxon. Depending on the nomenclature code which is applied to the organism in question, a type may be a specimen, culture, illustration, description or taxon.
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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.
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Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné)

Carl von Linné, Alexander Roslin, 1775. Currently owned by and hanging at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
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species is one of the basic units of biological classification. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
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Leporidae
Fischer de Waldheim, 1817

Genera

Pentalagus
Bunolagus
Nesolagus
Romerolagus
Brachylagus
Sylvilagus
Oryctolagus
Poelagus
Caprolagus

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genus (plural: genera) is part of the Latinized name for an organism. It is a name which reflects the classification of the organism by grouping it with other closely similar organisms.
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Caprolagus
Blyth, 1845

Species: C. hispidus

Binomial name
Caprolagus hispidus
(Pearson, 1839)

The Hispid Hare,
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Pronolagus

Pronolagus is a genus of mammal in the Leporidae family. It contains the following species:
  • Natal Red Rock Hare (Pronolagus crassicaudatus)
  • Smith's Red Rock Hare (Pronolagus rupestris)

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L. europaeus

Binomial name
Lepus europaeus
Pallas, 1778

The European Hare or Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus
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Kilometres per hour (American English: kilometers per hour) is a unit of both speed (scalar) and velocity (vector). The unit symbol is km/h or km·h−1
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Miles per hour is a unit of speed, expressing the number of international miles covered per hour.

Miles per hour is the unit used for speed limits, and speeds, on roads in the United Kingdom, United States and some other nations, where it is commonly abbreviated in everyday
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A solitary (Latin solus, meaning alone) person, animal or object is one which is not usually in the companionship of others of its type. Solitary activities are those which do not require (or indeed preclude) the presence of others, such as walking, listening to
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collective noun is a word used to define a group of objects, where "objects" can be people, animals, inanimate things, concepts, or other things. For example, in the phrase "a pride of lions", pride is a collective noun.
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North America is a continent [1] in the Earth's northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the south and west
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L. americanus

Binomial name
Lepus americanus
Erxleben, 1777

The Snowshoe Hare (Lepus americanus), also called the Varying Hare, is a species of hare found in North America.
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L. californicus

Binomial name
Lepus californicus
Gray, 1837

The Black-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus), also known as the Desert Hare
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L. townsendii

Binomial name
Lepus townsendii
Bachman, 1839

The White-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii), also known as the Prairie Hare and the White Jack
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A burrow is a hole or tunnel dug into the ground by an animal to create a space suitable for habitation, temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion. Burrows provide a form of shelter against predation and exposure to the elements, so the burrowing way of life is quite
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In Biology, the term precocial refers to species in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. The opposite developmental strategy is called "altricial", where the young are born helpless.
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Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. There are seven different genera in the family classified as rabbits, including the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), cottontail rabbit (genus
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