The snowshoe hare ( Lepus americanus ), also known as the "varying hare," is a fascinating creature of the North American boreal forests, renowned for its unique adaptations to survive in harsh, snowy environments. This article explores the snowshoe hare's habitat preferences, dietary habits, and the remarkable physical and behavioral traits that enable it to thrive in its challenging environment.
Distinguishing Features
Snowshoe hares are often mistaken for rabbits, but they possess distinct characteristics that set them apart. One of the most notable differences lies in their hind feet, which are significantly larger than those of rabbits. These oversized feet act like natural snowshoes, distributing the hare's weight and preventing it from sinking into deep snow. This adaptation is crucial for navigating the snowy terrain of their habitat.
Another key difference lies in their reproductive strategies. Snowshoe hare young, called leverets, are born above ground, fully furred, and with their eyes open, while rabbits are born in underground dens, blind, and naked.
Habitat Preferences
Ideal snowshoe hare habitat is found in and around coniferous forests. Aspen, spruce, and cedar swamps also provide prime habitat. The snowshoe hare's dependence on conifer stands is related to its need for concealment, which is vital for protection from predators. Small, scattered openings adjacent to softwood cover, with brushy deciduous vegetation for browse, improve survival by reducing travel distances to food.
Snowshoe hares can be found throughout the state, but prefer areas with coniferous forests. In national parks across interior Alaska, they inhabit spruce forests as well as shrubby habitats in riparian areas. Snowshoe hares are residents of middle and higher elevation habitats within the Klamath range, southern Cascades, and the Sierra Nevada south to Mariposa, Mono, and Madera counties. Snowshoes have been reported also from the Warner Mountains in northeastern California. In California, they are often found near montane riparian vegetation, in young or dense stands of conifers (especially firs, lodgepole pines, and subalpine forests), and in chaparral. They often seek cover at the base of trees where branches droop to the ground.
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All of the habitat needs of a snowshoe hare should be met within a 20-acre home range. At least 30% of the stand (six acres) is base cover. Maintain 45% (nine acres) in travel cover. Plan for 10% (two acres) to be in permanent herbaceous vegetation such as grasses and forbs for a source of summer foods. Four one-half acre openings scattered around the unit to provide summer food are preferable to one or two large openings. Smaller openings reduce the vulnerability of hares to predators. 15% (three acres) of the 20-acre area should be in the regenerative stage (0-10 years old, up to eight feet in height). This provides both winter food and future cover.
Diet and Feeding Habits
Snowshoe hares are herbivorous and lignivorous animals with food requirements that shift seasonally. Their diet is diverse. In summer hare eat clover, grass, dandelions, berries, and ferns. The summer diet of snowshoe hares consists largely of grasses, forbs, and other succulent plants. In winter, they eat twigs, buds, tender bark of shrubs and trees, and stems of bushes and saplings including aspen, alder, spruce, fir, hen-dock, birch, willow, and pine. Hares prefer to eat twigs less than one-tenth of an inch in diameter. Snowshoe hares browse heavily on vegetation and often leave behind well-defined browse-lines (often referred to as "hare lines"). Hares will also re-ingest their feces to extract all of the available nutrients from their food.
Activity Patterns and Social Behavior
Snowshoe hares are active throughout the year at dawn, dusk and at night. They are mainly nocturnal and don't hibernate. They are shy and secretive and spend most of the day in shallow depressions, called forms, scraped out under clumps of ferns, brush thickets, and downed piles of timber. During the day, they take cover under exposed tree roots, ledges, clumps of small trees, or logs. They may occasionally use the large burrows of mountain beavers as forms. Snowshoe hares occupy well-defined home ranges that may overlap with one another, even though they are not social. They have an active core area of five to ten acres with 25 acres as the outer limits of their range.
During the breeding season, they become diurnal and juveniles are usually more active and less cautious than adults. Snowshoe hares are generally solitary but may gather in small groups when feeding. They typically feed at night and follow well-worn forest paths to feed on various plants and trees. They are very cautious and tend to avoid open areas during bright periods of a single night. If feeling threatened Snowshoe hares may freeze hoping to stay undetected due to their camouflaging coloration, or they may flee. They are very fast and agile; they may cover 3 m at a time and can run as fast as 45 km/h (28 mph). The snowshoe hare travels about on well-established trails or runways which become deeply worn in the snow or forest floor.
Reproduction and Life Cycle
Hares reach sexual maturity during the breeding period in the spring following birth, typically from March through July. The first mating of the year occurs in spring (March and April) and a litter of usually two to four young (leverets) is born about 35 days after mating. After a gestation period of 37 days, the young are born between May and August. Newborn hare are fully furred, have open eyes, weigh about two and a half ounces (70 grams), and have a brown coat with a small patch of white on the forehead, and a white band on the edge of the ears. A female produces one to four litters per year, varying in size from one to nine young per litter. The number of young born seems to correlate with winter temperatures and snow depth. The female will often mate again hours after birth. The young hares, or leverets, are born fully furred, with eyes open and hopping around by their first day. At ten days of age the young begin foraging on grass and are completely weaned from their mother's milk by the age of one month.
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Hares produce two to three litters of young a year and females remate soon after the birth of a litter. Males and females have multiple mates throughout the year. Young hares move about soon after they are born and young snowshoe hares usually begin to breed a year after their birth. Reproductive rates vary by region and by year. They are capable of moving around after one day and normally nurse for 25 to 28 days, except for the last litter of the season which may nurse much longer. They begin to feed on grass and other herbaceous plants after 10 to 12 days. Young females normally first breed as 1-year-olds.
Physical Adaptations
Snowshoe hares are somewhat larger than cottontail rabbits. They average around 18 to 20 inches (.5 m) in total length and weigh 3 to 4 pounds (1.4-1.8 kg). Adult snowshoe hares weigh about 2-5 pounds. Snowshoe hares are larger, have longer legs, and longer ears than cottontail and brush rabbits. The snowshoe hare has the name "snowshoe" because of the large size of its hind feet. The animal's feet prevent it from sinking into the snow when it hops and walks. The soles of the feet are densely furred, with stiff hairs (forming the snowshoe) on the hind feet.
One of the most remarkable adaptations of the snowshoe hare is its seasonal change in fur color. In summer the coat is yellowish to grayish brown with white underparts, and the tail is brown on top. The Snowshoe hare's fur is rusty brown in the spring and summer, and white in the winter. It also always has a gray underbelly and black on the tips and edges of its ears and tail. The face and legs are cinnamon brown. The ears are brownish with black tips and white or creamy borders. This coat is shed and replaced by white pelage in winter, but the hairs are dusky at the base and the underfur is gray. The ears are dark at the tips. During the winter, the fur is almost entirely white, except for black eyelids and the blackened tips on the ears. This adaptation provides excellent camouflage, allowing the hare to blend in with its surroundings and avoid detection by predators. The gradual shedding of the coat and replacement of the guard hairs occurs two times per year and is triggered by changes in day-length. Early snowfalls will often catch the snowshoe hare still in its summer coat, making it vulnerable to the hunter.
Population Dynamics and Cycles
Populations of snowshoe hare are subject to cycles of high abundance and scarcity. Snowshoe hare populations cycle in 8 to 11 year periods, and densities may fluctuate 5 to 25-fold during a cycle. The population in an area will build up over a period of years to peak abundance, followed by a sudden decline to a very low level. During periods of peak abundance, there are as many as 600 animals per square mile (230/km²) of range. The exact cause or causes for the decline are unknown. The causes of the cyclic fluctuations of snowshoe hares are debated among scientists. Scientists have proposed many hypotheses to explain the changes in population size that lead to these cycles. These hypotheses usually center on food limitation, patterns of predation, and links between food supply and predation. As an important prey species for a wide variety of predators, the population size and reproductive success of many predators cycles with the abundance of hare.
Predator-Prey Relationships
Hares are well adapted for escaping their predators. They have keen hearing and upon detecting a predator they often freeze in their tracks. The relationship between snowshoe hares and their year-round predators including lynx, great-horned owls, and northern goshawks is well documented. These and other predators such as golden eagles depend on snowshoe hares as a food source early in the nesting season. When sensing danger adult Snowshoe hares will often flee to escape predation while baby hares will usually freeze trying to stay undetected because they can't yet move swiftly.
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Impact on the Ecosystem
Hares greatly influence the world around them, including the vegetation, predators, and other herbivores and omnivores that live in the same habitats. Hares browse heavily on vegetation. Browsing affects the growth of plants and stimulates plants to produce secondary compounds that make them unpalatable for hares and other omnivores.
Conservation Status and Threats
Habitat loss and climate change are the main threats to Snowshoe hares at present. In some areas of their range, the habitat for some populations has changed dramatically, leaving some habitats without snow for longer periods than previously. Some hares have adapted and stay brown all winter. Others, however, continue to turn white in winter. These hares are at an increased risk of being hunted and killed because they are no longer camouflaged. Many people in the scientific community believe that Snowshoe hare populations are at risk of crashing unless interbreeding speeds up the process of evolution to year-round brown. The IUCN Red List and other sources don’t provide the number of the Snowshoe hare total population size.
Hunting and Management
Hares are popular with hunters and are managed as small game. Both species of hare offer a great deal of recreation for the small game hunter, especially in years of abundance. The snowshoe is available to more hunters than the Alaska hare and can be taken near highway systems and in such disturbed areas as mine tailing piles. Hares are best hunted with a shotgun and birdshot, or .22-caliber rifle or handgun. In most Game Management Units where they are found hares are open to sport hunting year round with no closed season; in other areas the season is closed in summer months, bag limits vary from five per day in some areas to no limit in others. The meat is quite tasty. Hunters should by alert for signs of tularemia, a bacterial disease found in hares and rodents throughout the world. Such signs include general sluggishness and spots on the liver and spleen. Normal sanitary precautions should be taken when handling hares, and rubber gloves should be used when cleaning and dressing them.
Cover is the single most important habitat need for the snowshoe hare. Base cover is the dense coniferous cover where the hare spends the day. The average tree height in good base cover is 11 feet (range is from eight to 15 feet). Travel cover consists of softwood corridors, or tracts, that allow the hare to move from base cover to a food source. Travel cover is not necessary if browse supplies are available immediately adjacent to base cover. Good travel cover effectively increases the range over which a hare may roam safely in search of browse.
Within a 20-acre management unit the following habitat components are recommended: base cover (30%), travel cover (45%), herbaceous food source (10%), and regeneration (15%).
Snowshoe Hare vs. New England Cottontail
Maine is home to two rabbit-like species, but only one of them-the New England cottontail (NEC) or cooney-is a true rabbit. The other is the snowshoe hare. Snowshoe hares are larger than cottontails, having a larger body, longer ears, and much longer feet. Probably the most recognizable difference between them is that snowshoe hares turn white during the winter while cottontails remain brown. Both snowshoe hare and New England cottontail need dense ground vegetation for cover from predators. New England cottontail prefer dense deciduous vegetation, whereas snowshoe hare prefer dense conifer growth, but occur in deciduous areas as well. Both species are primarily nocturnal. They spend most of the day resting in dense cover. When approached, hare remain motionless before sprinting away. Like most North American rabbits, New England cottontail also use burrows made by other animals, as they do not make their own. From spring to fall, rabbits and hares eat green vegetation such as dandelions, grass, and the new growth on woody plants. New England cottontail are 15-17 inches long and weights around 2 pounds. The fur is grayish brown with flecks of black and they have a white tail. Snowshoe hare are significantly larger than cottontails, being 16-20" long, about three pounds, and have longer ears and feet. In summer, snowshoe hares are brown in color with black ear tips and a white tail. Both cottontails and hares are most active during dawn, dusk, and at night. They are uncommonly seen during daylight hours because they largely remain sheltered from predators in thick vegetation. Cottontails and hares are active year-round and do not hibernate. They may venture from their summer feeding areas in search of mates or may move during the winter to find better cover or food supplies. They use many forms of natural or human-made shelter to hide from predators or inclement weather.
The breeding season for hares and rabbits in Maine begins sometime in March and can continue through late summer. Snowshoe hare can have up to four litters a year, with one to nine young per litter. New England cottontail can have up to three litters a year and average of five young per litter. Newborn hare are fully furred, have open eyes, weigh about two and a half ounces (70 grams), and have a brown coat with a small patch of white on the forehead, and a white band on the edge of the ears. They are capable of moving around after one day and normally nurse for 25 to 28 days, except for the last litter of the season which may nurse much longer. They begin to feed on grass and other herbaceous plants after 10 to 12 days. Cottontails on the other hand are born with their eyes shut and are completely dependent on their mother. Females leave their young to go off and feed, but periodically return to nurse the young. The young develop quickly and can leave the nest within two weeks.
Predators of snowshoe hare and New England cottontail come in every shape and size. Hawks, owls, dogs, cats, coyotes, foxes, weasels, mink, fisher, marten, lynx, and bobcats are capable of predating both species. Annual mortality rates of snowshoe hare and New England cottontail are thought to be similar. For juveniles, 75 to 95 percent die each year, while adult mortality ranges from 66 to 81 percent. In most of the NEC’s range they also must compete with the non-native eastern cottontail rabbit ( Sylvilagus floridanus ) for limited habitat. The eastern cottontail is the rabbit that most people are familiar with in the Midwest and eastern US because they can occur in a wide variety of habitats, including in heavily developed areas. Eastern cottontails were introduced into parts of New England in the early 1900s to provide additional hunting opportunities and have since spread considerably. Eastern cottontails can have higher survival and reproductive rates than NEC, so once established in an area, eastern cottontails can outcompete and replace NEC.
The snowshoe hare is an abundant game species with a statewide distribution. Historically New England cottontails were also a game species (the hunting season was closed in 2004) and ranged as far east as Belfast and as far inland as Porter, Auburn, and Augusta. But, NEC have experienced a drastic decline in Maine and throughout their worldwide range (New England and east of the Hudson River in New York). In Maine, NEC are currently only known to occur in just six towns south of Portland (Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough, Wells, Eliot, York, and Kittery), and are listed as a State Endangered species (listed in 2007) with an estimated population of less than 300 individuals. Similarly, they are State Endangered in New Hampshire, are extirpated from Vermont, and were nearly extirpated from Rhode Island. The range-wide decline of NEC is primarily due to habitat loss; in particular the loss of old field habitat, shrublands, and young forest. The ideal habitat for New England cottontails is dense shrubby habitat (the kind you would not want to try to walk through) that provides adequate cover for them to hide from avian and terrestrial predators. This kind of habitat is created naturally on the landscape by forest fires, floods, and other natural events. However, humans have intervened in these natural processes to limit them, and as a result few thickets capable of supporting NEC and the other 40+ Species of Greatest Conservation Need that rely on them are created naturally. Timber harvesting can be used to create the needed habitat, but that too is in decline in southern Maine. Today, <3% of the landscape in York and Cumberland counties are in early successional habitats. MDIFW works collaboratively with many partners within and outside the state. Regionally, MDIFW participates in the New England Cottontail Conservation Initiative by participating in the New England cottontail technical committee. Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Wildlife Management Institute, university researchers, and others to share information and pool resources to benefit the rabbit. The amount of suitable habitat on the landscape is the current limiting factor for NEC populations, so habitat creation and enhancement is the largest aspect of the restoration effort. MDIFW and our conservation partners actively seek out and provide technical assistance to landowners that have property near our existing NEC populations to conduct habitat management. Management actions include timber harvests, cutting and leaving trees on the ground, periodic mowing of shrubs, planting native shrubs, building brush piles, managing invasive species, and allowing fields to revert to shrubland. To date, we’ve conducted management on hundreds of acres under all types of landownership, including state, federal, municipal, land trust, and privately owned properties. Although NEC are the focal species of this effort, many other wildlife species benefit from these habitat management actions, including at least 42 of Maine’s Species of Greatest Conservation Concern, including American woodcock, eastern towhees, and black racers. Another aspect of the NEC recovery effort is a captive breeding and translocation program. Roger Williams Park Zoo (Providence, RI) and Queens Zoo (Queens, NY) breed New England cottontails in their facilities, with the young produced being released into the wilds of Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Additionally, Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge (Newington, NH) has a breeding pen where adult NEC are retained while their young are released. On Patience Island, Rhode Island a breeding colony was established from young produced in the zoos, and now individuals are trapped from the island for release on the mainland. Maine began releasing rabbits in 2017 when 20 NEC were released at Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve in Wells. Releases at the Reserve from 2017-19 have established a breeding population that has begun to expand off from the Reserve. MDIFW participates in a regional NEC monitoring program with the goal of determining if there are any changes in cottontail populations across the region. As part of the monitoring program, sites known to be occupied by NEC (the number varies by state, but all known occupied sites in Maine are included) and a similar number of unoccupied sites are surveyed on a two-year rotation (half the sites are surveyed one year, and the other half the next). Surveys involve walking transects through patches of suitable habitat and collecting fecal pellets. Based on their appearance, pellets of NEC, eastern cottontail, and snowshoe hare can’t be accurately distinguished. So, pellets are submitted to genetic labs to confirm the species. MDIFW also occasionally performs more thorough “abundance” surveys at sites of particular interest (for example, locations where we have released rabbits) including a more detailed genetic analysis that identifies the individual rabbit the pellet came from. As a result, we can estimate abundance and evaluate the genetic diversity of the population. Each winter, MDIFW also surveys areas not included in the regional monitoring program to search for previously unknown populations. Much of the recovery work on NEC in Maine is accomplished by governmental and non-governmental partners working with MDIFW through Maine's NEC Working Group.
Interactions with Humans
New England cottontail, because of their low numbers and reclusive habits, do not represent a significant pest problem to landowners at this time. Likewise, snowshoe hare interact little with humans despite their abundance, as they are reluctant to venture into open areas to feed.