March has arrived and in doing so heralds the official arrival of spring, and not a moment too soon. The clock change will mean gradually lighter evenings and all around winter will start to release its grip as the spring flowers drag themselves from their slumber to brighten our countryside, gardens and towns. As well as plants, animals will become easier to spot as ‘spring-fever’ takes hold and one such example is the brown hare.

Identifiable by their longer ears and legs
Brought to Britain by the Romans, hares are classified into the same family as rabbits but are identifiable by their longer ears, which have black tips, and their longer back legs. These longer back legs make them excellent runners and they can reach speeds of up to 45 miles per hour. Their habitat tends to be grassland and at woodland edges.

Unlike rabbits, hares do not live in groups underground but take shelter in ditches or in shallow depressions called ‘forms’ and live solitary lives. A young hare is called a leveret and they are born with a full coat of hair and open eyes. From a young age the leveret will be left alone for prolonged periods of time so, if you should ever find a young hare, do not assume it has been abandoned. Watch for the mother from a distance as it is unlikely she will return to the leveret if she is aware of your presence.

Brown hares were once a common sight but their population has decreased dramatically over the last century. March, however, is a good time to spot hares as they become very active as the breeding season commences. The expression ‘mad as a March hare’ suddenly makes sense as you see them leaping and bounding around the fields and, if you are lucky, frantically ‘boxing’ each other.

It would be logical to assume that when you see two hares going head to head that you are seeing a dispute for territory between two males but this is not the case. What is actually happening is as the females (known as jills) come into season, the males (known as jacks) are in hot pursuit and it is their over-enthusiastic endeavours that result in the females fending them off with a box round the ears.

Loss of hedgerows and hunting have influenced their dramatic decline
The dramatic decline in the brown hare population is partly due to changes in farming practices. Hares require a year round food supply as they do not hibernate, and modern farming practises make this challenging. The loss of our hedgerows has also played its part as they provide important shelter. Finally, hunting has taken its toll on hare numbers. There are however some organisations, such as The Hare Preservation Trust, working hard to protect the hare and prevent it being lost from our landscapes completely.