Hare

- Popular among children and hunters

The hare is probably one of the most popular children’s animals. The hare looks like a rabbit, and looks rather endearing and cute. In addition, the hare is also known as the Easter bunny that comes with Easter eggs for the children. In many children's songs, the cute hare is on the run from the hunter, who is more interested in catching the hare for his dinner.

Eats dinner twice
Just like cows, the hare lives off wild plants. Cows ruminate by regurgitating food and chewing it up again. The hare almost does the same. The plants eaten by the hare are broken down by microorganisms in the caecum. The hare produces some small droppings, which it quickly eats again. In the fresh droppings, plant residues as well as proteins and vitamins from the microorganisms that break down plants can be found.

The males fight over the female
The hare mates in the spring. The males fight over a female by conducting a violent boxing match where two males box with their front paws and kick with their hind legs. They can also scratch each other and cause tufts of hair to fly around. A hare male may mate with several females. Hare stock has decreased a lot in recent years, mainly because many pups cannot survive the first year. Some reasons may be predation by foxes or lack of grass and wild weeds, which they live off. Many hares are also killed in traffic accidents.

Leverets hide in the grass
The hare’s fur is grey-brown and it provides good camouflage when the hare is lying on the ground. The hare’s leverets lie in a groove in the earth. If you find a leveret in the grass, you might think it has been abandoned by her mother. That is a rarity. The mother conceals herself at a distance from the leveret in order not to lure predators. The leveret only gets food once a day.

Track: Hare tracks have a characteristic pattern of forelegs and hind legs. When it runs, the long hind legs will leave a track in front of the forelegs’ track. The forelegs’ tracks are egg-shaped, whereas the hind legs’ tracks can be more elongated. The hare’s scat is made up of round balls of 1-2 cm in diameter. They are yellowish-brown, and you can clearly see that they consist of small lumps of plant fibres.

 
Facts: The hare is 60-70 cm long and weighs about 4 kg. It has a brown coat that blends in with its surroundings. It uses its big eyes and ears to keep an eye out for enemies and its long hind legs give it a speed of up to 80 km per hour when fleeing from a predator. It feeds on grass and wild plants and is widespread throughout Denmark. The stock has halved in recent years.