What is the difference between a snowshoe hare and an arctic hare

They will be ready to breed the following year. Food can be scarce in the Arctic, but the hares survive by eating woody plants, mosses, and lichens which they may dig through the snow to find in winter.

In other seasons they eat buds, berries, leaves, roots, and bark. Traditionally, the arctic hare has been important to Native Americans. These fairly plentiful animals are hunted as a food resource and for their fur, which is used to make clothing. All rights reserved. Common Name: Arctic hares. Scientific Name: Lepus arcticus. Type: Mammals. Diet: Omnivore. Size: Head and body: 19 to 26 inches; tail: 1 to 3 inches. Weight: 6 to 15 pounds. Size relative to a 6-ft man:. Least concern.

Least Concern Extinct. Current Population Trend: Unknown. Share Tweet Email. Go Further. Arctic hares are rare, with only occasional sightings, and their populations are thought to be declining throughout most of their range.

Showshoe hares are usually 18 to 20 inches in length, weighing three to four pounds. Their summer coats are yellowish to grayish brown with white underparts, and the tail is brown on top. During the winter, their coat is replaced by white fur, but the hair is dusky at the base with a gray underfur. Snowshoe hares' ears are dark at the tip. Showshoe hares are found in brushy areas, forests, and wooded wetlands.

They feed on a variety of vegetation including grasses, buds, twigs, leaves, needles, and bark. Snowshoe hares travel on well-established trails or runways at all times of the year. Young are born April through August with two to three litters per year. Litters typically consist of two to four leverets young hares and can range from one to seven.

Leverets weigh about two ounces at birth and can walk as soon as their fur is dry. Their pathways are delimited mainly by scent.

Like all leporids, the hares are crepuscular active at twilight and nocturnal. During daylight hours, they spend considerable time under sheltering bushes or stumps. As evening approaches, they follow familiar runways through their domain to feed. Their range is mostly covered by spruce, birch, willow and alder, and the young decidous underwood is important winter food. By October the snowshoe will have turned completely white in accordance with the season. In winter, deep snowfalls not only elevate the hare so that it can reach higher for its food, but the snow load also bends tender new growth of the tops of alder, birch and willow within range.

As hares crouch against the cold of winter they draw their feet undeneath their bodies and tuck their ears back against their withers, fluffing out their fur for mazimum insulation.

As the number of hares begins to naturally increase, next winter, when you take a walk on a clear night after a new snowfall, you may see the moonlit taiga come alive with the silent, darting white shapes of the snowshoe hare. Denali - Facebook Flickr Instagram.