Sitting silently on a stand you hear a rustling in the brush, too quiet and close to be a deer. “Probably another one of those pesky squirrels,” you think; then a larger form appears below and moves across an opening with a hopping gait. “Snowshoe rabbit,” you say, thinking ahead to the end of deer season when you might switch to chasing smaller game well into winter. Your assessment is close, though not entirely accurate.

The creature you caught slipping through the underbrush is not a rabbit, but a hare. “What’s the difference?” you say. “They’re all just rodents.” It turns out, they’re not. Rabbits and hares are lagomorphs. Like rodents, they have large paired upper incisors, or buck teeth, so called for the male or buck rabbits. If you look at the skull of a lagomorph however, you’ll see another, smaller pair of upper incisors just behind the front pair. There are other morphological differences, like large hind legs adapted for leaping, from which the hare gets its genus name: Lepus.

There are also differences between rabbits and hares. Rabbits are born altricial – naked and with eyes closed. Hares are precocial, born fully furred and with eyes wide open, ready to run and leap. Snowshoe hares also have an adaptation that can come in very handy in northern environments. In winter, their pelage – or fur – changes from brown to white, allowing them to better blend in to a snowy background. However, it can sometimes backfire if snow comes too early before they’ve transitioned to white, or too late, long after they’ve turned white. The snow and the change coincide often enough that the species persists, though populations are somewhat cyclical.

There are several factors influencing cycles but a big one is population size of both predator and prey. As prey (hare) populations rise, they provide more food for predators like lynx, bobcats and coyotes. Better-fed predators can raise more young so their populations increase over time until predation has a depressing effect and prey numbers fall. Classic examples consist of boom-and-bust cycles but other influences like habitat change can smooth out the peaks and valleys. Timber harvesting creates early successional habitat favored by rabbits and hares, also a benefit to predators like lynx.

There are several methods for hunting hare, often involving donning your own snowshoes. One is slipping slowly through the brush, much as you would while deer hunting. The task is made tougher by the thick young growth preferred by hares, and by their somewhat inconsistent behavior.

Like many prey species, they react to potential predators in one of two ways. Sometimes they flee, possibly offering a quick, running shot. Other times they’ll hold tight, trying to go undetected as predators or hunters pass by. They’re easier to spot when their white pelage stands out starkly against a brown background. When all around is snow covered, you have to look more closely, for the form of a hare or a beady black eye.

A more traditional method involves the help of hounds. Bassetts and beagles are set loose in likely hare habitat. Once on a hot scent the dogs sing out to alert hunters who follow the chase by ear as they move into potential ambush locations. The hares have an Achilles’ heel in their long-legged flight. As the chase continues they tend to circle back over their path and if hunters pick the right path, a shot may be offered.

For the latter method the hunt is as much about the hounds as the hares. Hunters revel in the musical baying, and are satisfied whether they bag a bunny or not. If they do, it turns out the hare makes decent table fare as well. When cooked slowly in a crock pot with your choice of herbs and spices and perhaps cream of something soup, the tender meat will fall off the bone and tastes a bit like dark turkey meat.

Bob Humphrey is a freelance writer and Registered Maine Guide who lives in Pownal. He can be reached at: bhunt@maine.rr.com

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