Anatomy of a hare. Hare family

Description of the hare, Lepus timidus Linnaeus, 1758.
   According to J. R. Ellerman, T.C.S. Morrison - Scott (1951), a total of 16 subspecies of the hare is described, 11 of them for the former USSR [Pavliniy, 1971; Mammals .., 1980; Koneva, 1983; Pavlinov, Rossolimo, 1987; Gromov, Erbaeva, 1995].
   A modern hare was found in the Upper Pleistocene on the Ural River. Geographic distribution  families cover Greenland, Scandinavia, Ireland, Scotland, northeastern Poland, isolated in the Alps and Pyrenees, Eurasia, North and South America, Africa, Australia and many islands where animals were released for acclimatization in different years [Lavrov, 1981 ; Lavrov, Kolosov, 1979].
   In Russia, the hare lives in the north right up to the coast of the Arctic Ocean, to the east the border runs along the southern outskirts of the forest zone through Siberia to the Pacific Ocean (Appendix 1, Fig. 1.). It is found everywhere in Kamchatka, also along the coast of the Sea of \u200b\u200bOkhotsk and on Sakhalin. The hare is common in northern Mongolia, northeastern China, Japan (Hokkaido Island), northern North America and the western coast of Fr. Greenland    [Bobrinsky et al., 1965; Flint et al., 1970; Heptner, Sludsky, 1972; Zykov, 1972; Wryneck 1976; Ravkin, Lukyanova, 1976; Koneva, 1983; Animal Life / Ed. Bannikova, 1984; Gromov, Erbaeva, 1995; Ravkin et al., 1996].  In the Kustanai region and in the north of Aktobe, an intermediate subspecies between L. t. Timidus and L. t. Sibiricorum [Ravkin et al., 1996].  Altai form L. t. lugubris Kasasch according to modern ideas [Naumov, 1947, 1994; Flint et al., 1970]  does not differ from L. t. Sibiricorum.
Description of the appearance.
   The skull is massive and wide. The occipital part is wide and flattened. The lateral sides of the frontal bones in front of the infraorbital processes are depressed.
   The lower jaw is massive, with the articular process abruptly raised upward. The teeth of hares are adapted to chewing coarse and hard food. The molars only cut food and grate a little. The complex structure of the cecum and the increased activity of the digestive tract compensates for the weak grinding of food by the teeth. When keeping rabbits in captivity, false chewing gum was detected (coprophagy) [Naumov, 1947; Koneva, 1983].
   In functional-morphological terms, the hare has much in common with the hare. However, there are differences due to the uniqueness of their main biotopes and ecology [Berezin, 2003d, e, e]. The skeleton of the limbs of the white hare has structural features in connection with certain habitats: forests of various types, dense small forests, felling, burning, with fallen tree trunks, tall grass, etc. The limbs, especially the hind ones, have longer ones, compared to the brown. middle and distal links.
   According to the steeper trajectory of the jump, the hare-hare takes first place in the development of muscles of the back and limbs in relation to other hares.

The ear is slightly widened and relatively short - pressed to the head, reaches only the end of the muzzle or slightly goes forward. The size of the hare varies significantly depending on the area. The largest whites live in Western Siberia: their weight reaches 5.5 kg, the smallest inhabit the taiga of Yakutia, their weight is 2.5-3 kg. The average weight of about 3 kilograms, length up to 65 cm.
   Body length from 44cm to 74cm; tail length from 4.9 cm to 10.8 cm; foot length from 13.2 cm to 19 cm; ear length from 7.5 to 10.0 cm. Females are not much larger than males. The average weight of males is 3.7 kg, the average weight of females is 3.9 kg [Kuznetsov, 1975; Strokov, 1966; Oliger, 1971; Peacock, 1971; Kapitonov, 1980; Mammals .., 1980; Some information .., 1995; Sokolov et al., 1994].
   Summer hair color on the back is reddish-gray, gray or slate-gray, sometimes with a dark brown streaky. The head is colored the same way as the back or somewhat brighter. There are no dark and white spots on the sides of the head. The front of the muzzle and cheeks are buffy-red or rusty-red. The front part of the muzzle and cheeks are light brown, which is due to the presence on the top of the remaining hair of a broad (one third of the length of the hair) light yellow-brown color, ending with a darkening. The base of this hair is dark

The number of vibrissae on the lips is from 31 to 48 on each side. From 4 to 6 vibrissae of dark color with a length of 16-42 mm are located in the eyebrow, from 3 to 6 - on the back of the cheeks, their length is 12-48 mm. In addition, there are a number of very short vibrissae on the cheeks and lips [Mammals ... / Ed. A.A. Sludsky and E.I. Strautman, 1980].
Ears are dark brown with a white stripe on the outer edge and a black top. Around the eyes there is a narrow whitish or whitish-buffy ring. Lips, chin and upper throat, white or grayish white. The sides of the neck are grayish or rusty gray with ocher ripples. The occiput and the upper side of the neck are buffy or grayish brown. The belly and inside of the legs are white. Paws are light gray with a reddish or buffy hue. The tail is white or sometimes slightly darkened from above by an admixture of brownish hair; the general shape of the tail is round, and not wedge-shaped, as in other species of hares. The upper surface of the tail without a dark or black spot on the upper side [Gromov, 1952; Red, 1963; Kolosov, 1979; Rukovsky, 1988; Sabaneev, 1992 a, b, c; Sokolov et al., 1994; Ananyev, 2000]. The color of the West Siberian hare is more or less homogeneous and slightly differs from the Kazakhstan hare [Ravkin, 1996]. The coloring of the hare in the summer is darker than the hare, the tips of the ears are black, and there is no black spot on the short rounded tail.
   Winter white hair white (except for the black tips of the ears). The greatest length of hair is on the belly, the smallest is on the head and limbs. All categories of winter hair (guides, outer, down) are longer than summer. For example, winter guides on the rump have an average length of 43.5, in the summer 34.2, the rest 39.6 and 27.1, respectively, downy 25.1 and 16.2 mm.
   In addition to protective color, the hare has other adaptations to the habitat. Fingers are separated from each other by deep gaps, can be widely spaced. The length of the trail of the hind paw is 12-17 cm, width is 7-12 cm. [Gromov, 1952; Formozov, 1946, 1989; Brem, 1992; Dinets, Rothschild, 1996]. Wide legs and feet, covered with thick bristles, provide him with good support in the snow.

Nutrition

about again, the existence of a hare in winter under taiga conditions is made up of only three species - willow (mainly shrub species), aspen and birch. The frequency of their eating also depends on their prevalence in the undergrowth and undergrowth. On the outskirts of overgrown fields, cavaliers of reclamation ditches, along rural and forest roads, on old reapers, where willows predominated, hares fed mainly on shoots of these shrubs. Alder, alder, birch, aspen, mountain ash predominate on logging sites, renewed by aspen and birch, along the banks of lakes and rivers, where the majority of Karelian hayfields are located, and it is these breeds that form the basis of hare food here. This dependence and the limited composition of the main white-fodder fodder in winter, characteristic of taiga forests, have been noted by many researchers, as well as the severity of the geographical variability of hare nutrition. Thus, in the more southern parts of the range, the proportion of aspen, willow, and birch in the diet of the hare decreases, but hazel and oak acquire more than 13% of occurrence (Naumov, 1947; Jurgenson, 1968), i.e., breeds that in the northern and middle taiga are not found at all.

Field signs  The hind legs of a hare are shorter, and the feet are much wider than that of a hare. On loose snow leaves a very large footprint (more than 6 cm), widely spreads long toes of the hind legs, the imprints of the traces of the fore and hind limbs differ from each other less than that of a roe.
   The location of the traces of the hind legs is almost at the same level (that is, more simultaneous support on them), and not diagonally (a sign of a hare-hare), increases the area of \u200b\u200bsupport of the hind legs, thereby reducing the binding of the hare in the snow [Koneva, 1983; Formozov, 1989; Shilov, 1998]. The hare moves mainly on loose loose forest snow or on marshy soils.
Biotopes
   In open spaces, the hare is very rare, in its habitats must necessarily be ponds, since it does not settle far from the water. The most common types of biotopes are bone birch forest, willow birch forest, grass birch forest, sedge birch forest, floodplains, broom plants in low areas, reed marshes, corn fields [Ivanov, Driklonsky, 1968; Abramov, 2001].
Molting.
   It is well known that the hare in Western Siberia molts twice a year [Mammals .., 1980]. Spring molting in the southern regions of Western Siberia begins in early March. With the advance to the north (up to the tundra), the molting periods are shifted: the hare sheds later - until about mid-April. Old hair becomes dry rough and brittle, fluff falls off, although the mezra still remains light. The peak of hair loss occurs in the second half of April (for the southern regions), and the hair coat falls out in whole fallen shreds. The growing hair of the summer fur coat becomes noticeable at the end of March, the mezra begins to darken in such places. After about two weeks, the admixture of winter hair remains only on the upper part of the scruff, and the entire color of the hare becomes typically summer. The complete molting process for a hare lasts 75-80 days. It can fluctuate in one direction or another for about 10 days. It depends on the physiological state of animals and weather conditions: in early spring - early molt, in cold and lingering - late. Males molt earlier than females [Utinov, 1973; Utinov, 1980].
   According to A.A. Sludsky et al. [Mammals ... / Ed. A.A. Sludsky, E.I. Strautman, 1980]for aviary hares, autumn molt occurs similarly to spring: it also, like spring, lasts 75-80 days. The appearance of winter hair is not directly related to the loss of summer, as they arise from new bulbs.

A hare in a year has 2, less often 3 litters of 4-6 each are bred [Aksakov, 1953 (1852); Cherkasov, 1990 (1884); Utinov, 1973; Mammals .., L 980].

The hare family includes a brown hare, a white hare, a tolai, a Manchu hare. This also includes the wild rabbit that lives in our south of Ukraine, but we won’t touch it, because our book is devoted to hunting hares. Sometimes there is a cross between a grouse and a white hare - a hare-hare, which has signs of both species. Such hybrids do not give offspring.

The most common are the grouse and the white hare, but in recent years the grouse has become less and less, and this is alarming.

The stock of tola rabbits is in somewhat better condition, their stocks are not even fully developed.

As for the Manchu hare, which lives in a relatively small area, it is not as numerous and popular as the rest of the species.

The hare lives mainly in the European part of our country - from the western borders to the Trans-Urals, from Arkhangelsk to the coast of the Caspian Sea. The area of \u200b\u200bdistribution of the grouse is gradually expanding, and only in the last 50-60 years it has advanced eastward by more than a thousand kilometers. In addition, the grouse was released where it was not there before: in Western and Eastern Siberia, in the Far East.

Rusak is the largest representative of the rabbit family (up to 7 kg), although its weight varies in different areas. The smallest are southern grubs, weighing only 3–3.5 kilograms. The largest russians live in Bashkiria. The sizes of the body of the rosace are also different, the length of the largest exceeds 70 centimeters.

In contrast to the white hare, the harbor has a longer, wedge-shaped tail, painted black above. He has long ears, narrow and long legs, the soles of which are covered with short, stiff hair. When it is necessary to distinguish between a grouse and a white hare in summer pubescence, they are usually compared along the length of the ears: in a grouse, if the ears are pulled to the nose, they will protrude beyond it, since they are longer than the head; ears are shorter and do not reach or barely reach the tip of the nose.

The Rusak has beautiful wavy and silky hair, the color of the hairline varies from clay-brown-fawn with a fawn shade (in the south) to light gray, almost white with an invariable dark “belt” on the ridge (in the north and northeast). The color of the hairline in the southern and western crayfish almost does not change seasonally. In the northern and northeastern regions, the summer brownish color changes to light, almost white by winter — molting occurs. The tips and rim of the ears, the upper part of the tail and the narrow strip on the ridge do not change their dark color.

Roe, whose hind legs are much longer than the front, runs well on a hard surface, but with difficulty in deep loose snow.

This hare perfectly adapted to life in open spaces. He has well-developed vision, and he can discern danger at a distance of 300-400 meters. Allegations of the “shortsightedness” of the rodent are erroneous and probably caused by the fact that he does not always determine the degree of danger, and is sometimes too curious. That is why the rook quite often brings the hunter close.

No less acute is the horned man’s hearing and sense of smell, which help him to navigate well in the environment. It is unlikely that a brown hare can be considered a cowardly animal. There are many examples of the manifestation of his magnificent endurance, cunning and resourcefulness. In addition, very often a rookie lives in close proximity to a person. And many of the habits of the Rusak often convince him of his quick wit and almost "prudence." In moments of extreme danger - from under the dog’s rut \u200b\u200b— he even sometimes escapes in settlements or in a herd of cattle.

Lives in a wide variety of lands. It can be found in the semi-desert and Arkhangelsk forests, in the alpine meadows of the Caucasus and the Don steppes, in the Carpathian spruce forests and in the fields near Moscow. However, in most places he retains his original attachment to open land. Therefore, the main habitats of the grouse are fields with various agricultural crops, meadows and meadow floodplains, ravines, beams, as well as gardens, forest margins and forest belts, shrubbery, sand massifs with trees and shrubs.

In its way of life, a roach is a twilight-night animal, but where it is less disturbed, it is active during the day. Lies on the ground in a variety of places, although often it depends on the weather, the nature of the terrain and lighting. You can raise a brownling from a lying ground both in an open field and in an overgrown ravine, in a garden and in a forest, in a garden and in a forest belt.

For most of the year, grouse feed on various herbaceous plants. Only in winter, especially in the second half, they eat woody-shrubby plants, nibbling the bark of the trunks and side shoots. It is during this period that the brownling can damage fruit trees and young forest plantations. In fact, this hare rarely starves. Lack of feed can be felt in snowy winters with blizzards, snowstorms and icy conditions.

Hares usually do not need water, they satisfy the need for eating lush grassy vegetation. Sometimes you have to watch them drink from rain puddles in the summer, but this happens quite rarely.

Like other herbivorous animals, hares need additional mineral nutrition and therefore almost always feel the need for salt. That is why they willingly visit artificial salt licks. Sometimes they lick mineral fertilizers left undisturbed, mistaking them for salt, and die from it.

The breeding season of the grouse is quite long and lasts from January (in the south) to September. The beginning of the hare of hares can easily be determined by their increased activity - the numerous tracks with a haul, the remnants of the wool of fighting males, wakefulness in the daytime. At the same time, spots of blue urine are clearly visible in the snow.

After a six-week pregnancy (its duration can vary from 41–42 to 48–51 days), the hare usually brings 2–5, less often up to 9 rabbits. During the breeding season, it can have from 2 to 4 broods with a total number of 10 - 12 or more rabbits. Rabbits are born sighted, pubescent and grow very quickly due to the nutritious milk of the rabbit (up to 24% fat and 12% protein) and an early transition to green food. A three-month-old hare is already difficult to distinguish from an adult hare.

Bunnies have amazing adaptability to their surroundings: they lie motionless in one place, not betraying their presence, in the thickets of grass or shrubs and have no smell. The fact is that the sweat glands in hares are located mainly on the soles of the paws. Even the fox's sharp instinct rarely allows her to find a hidden bunny. It is believed that the hare, returning to the hares for the next feeding, finds them most often only after they give a trace. The hound also, as a rule, does not smell the lying hare, often runs past and finds it only when the alarmed animal rises from the bed, leaving behind a sharp smelling trace. Therefore, even in the open area of \u200b\u200ba lurking bunny, it is rather difficult to detect, moreover, it is well masked by the longer coat on the abdomen and sides, making it almost invisible.

Despite such a high adaptability to the conditions of the terrain, only a few rabbits survive from a rather numerous offspring by autumn, so in general their growth is not always noticeable. This is due to the high natural mortality of young animals from various causes.

The hare has a lot in common with the grouse, but it also has differences in color, body structure and lifestyle. We point out the main features that a young hunter needs to know.

The white hare inhabits a vast, much larger territory than the roe: it is found in almost the entire forest zone, in the forest-steppe, partly in the steppe, and also in the tundra, although its abundance in different zones is different.

The hare differs from the brown hull by its smaller weight (2.5-5.5 kg) and size, shorter hind legs and a massive head. The largest whites live in the tundra of Chukotka and Taimyr, the smallest in the south of Eastern Siberia and the Far East.

The soles of the paw's feet are wider, “big-shouldered”, better pubescent, and although it is inferior in speed to running speed, it moves better on loose snow.

His name - white - he received for winter coloring. This snow-white hare lying in the snow is given out only by the black tips of the ears. In summer, the whites have a reddish-brown-gray color and resemble a summer Rusak. True, the undercoat of the whites is stiffer and the outer hair is completely straight.

Belyak is considered mainly a forest inhabitant and prefers such areas of the forest where there are better feeding and protective conditions. Therefore, you should not look for him in a dense and dense forest. It is more convenient for it to have more diverse forest lands with clearings, shrubs, mossy and hummocky swamps, aspen forests, cuts, old burnt areas and ravines. In the summer, the hare can live in a dense forest. In winter, he usually avoids it.

In contrast to the grouse, the white hare is more associated with certain places of lying, sometimes it uses them repeatedly. It lies in the most diverse, but always well-protected places. He especially likes to go to bed under the trees felled by the wind, in heaps of brushwood, among hummocks in swamps, in curtains of dense shrubs and in forest ravines.

Usually, the hare lives settled, but sometimes makes migrations. Within the same areas of land, these migrations are insignificant and are associated mainly with seasonal changes in feed. But the whites can travel long distances, especially in the tundra, when the need makes them migrate southward - to the forest-tundra.

Just like a rookie, this hare leads a twilight-night lifestyle. Its activity depends on the weather condition: in winter it is most active on frosty nights, and in the thaw it does not get out of bed longer, sometimes remaining on it for up to two days.

The composition of the whale feed is different in that its food contains more woody and shrub than grassy vegetation. It is especially important for the whitewash to have a sufficient set of winter food, since in summer he usually does not feel a shortage of food. The whale finds the best quality feed at the edges and large forest glades, where the plants are well lit by the sun, more diverse and nutritious. They need whites and mineral nutrition, solonetzes willingly visit. Females often gnaw on bones, discarded antlers and moose horns, making up for the need for minerals, which are especially necessary for developing embryos and newborn rabbits. The whale feels the need for water only in dry weather, which forces him to move closer to forest watering places.

The mating season lasts from February to July, rabbits appear after a seven-week pregnancy in the period from March to August. In total, a hare has from one to three broods, in each of which from 1 to 3-5 are bunnies. It is the first brood that is most important (the second brood is in a roach!), Which determines the increase in the number of this species.

Bunnies are well adapted to the environment, they grow quite quickly. But, like all hares, young white hare, especially summer broods, are subject to high mortality, more than half of the animals die in the summer, so only 10 out of 10–11 hares brought by one female survive.

The hare, more than other hares, is exposed to various diseases, especially helminths. More often it is observed in damp, low-lying lands, favorable for the development of various worms. Rainy summer weather contributes to the spread of disease. A lot of rabbits die from predators, their main enemies are the fox and the lynx. However, in general, the population of hares does not depend only on foxes.

Despite all these reasons, the stock of white hare can reach high numbers, especially in the northern and central regions of the European part of the country.

The Tolai hare inhabits the southern regions of our country: Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Southern Siberia to the Transbaikal steppes, lives in deserts and semi-deserts, in steppes and tugai thickets, even enters the mountains. He especially loves to live in various thickets of dense and prickly vegetation, found in deciduous and coniferous forests, in subalpine meadows.

It resembles a grouse, but its weight is almost two times less than that of a grouse (from 1.5 to 3 kg). Body length about 50 centimeters. More modest than that of a brown hatching, the winter pubescence of the tolai has a dull, ash-gray or grayish-brown color. The dark and light ends of the outer hair create a kind of streaky pattern, and, in contrast to the rosacea, pubescence is short, sparse, without waviness. The tail is black or blackish-brown on top, the ears are longer than that of the brown, and they do not have a black border along the outer edge.

It’s quite difficult to find this hare on a lying bed, as it settles in dense thickets of shrubbery or grassy plants, hiding from its enemies: jackals, foxes, wild cats.

The lifestyle of tholya has much in common with other representatives of the hare family. It feeds at twilight-night time, and during the day it is on a bed, and tolai practically spends all its life in the same microdistrict where it was born. This is a typical herbivorous animal feeding on various herbaceous and woody-shrub plants. She eagerly feeds, like a grouse, on agricultural crops, especially where they are located close to thickets - places of diaries.

Reproduction of tholium is poorly studied, even the duration of pregnancy of females has not been established. The race starts early - at the end of January and ends in September. Young growth appears in the period from February to October, and in the brood there are three or six or more rabbits. It is believed that in total the tolai has three to four broods and more numerous rabbits in the second and third litters.

The stock of this hare can reach a high abundance, significantly larger than that of the white hare, and the stocks of thawing are not completely fully developed. It is valued only as an object of hunting.

The Manchu hare resembles a hare in terms of lifestyle and appearance, although it can be smaller in size and body weight than the smallest hare. It differs from other hares in that its ocher-brownish-brown color with a pronounced dark motley pattern does not change seasonally. The hair is hard, bristly. Short paws and general compactness of the body, the Manchu rabbit resembles a wild rabbit.

The area of \u200b\u200bdistribution of the Manchu hare is insignificant. It inhabits deciduous coastal forests of the Far East, the Amur Valley. Like the white hare, he is a typical forest dweller, avoids open places and old forests, prefers mountain slopes, ravines, floodplains and other areas with thickets of hazel and young oak trees, aspen and birch forests with rich shrub undergrowth.

The Manchurian hare is a settled animal, active in twilight-night time. Spends the whole day on a bed, which suits in thickets, hollows of fallen trees, in cliffs and badger burrows. In winter, it can have several beds connected by paths.

It feeds on tree-shrub plants, berries, fruits, algae. In winter, sometimes it feeds under the snow, breaking through the passages in it.

The reproduction of the Manchu hare has been little studied. It is known that the mating season lasts from March to June, and hares appear in April - July. In the brood there are 1 to 4 rabbits.

Since the Manchurian hare usually does not reach a high abundance, has small size and low quality of hair, its economic value is small.

***

A brief biological characterization of hares remains to be supplemented with general information about the features inherent in all considered species of the hare family.

Hares, like other fur animals, annually change their hairline. Only in the Manchu hare the hairline externally remains unchanged.

In spring, a thick, long winter hairline changes to a rarer and shorter summer fur. In autumn, on the contrary, there is a complete change of summer hair to winter. A sign of starting shedding, in addition to the fragility of the falling hair, is the change in the color of the hare (skin) of the hare. During autumn molting, the mezra turns blue from the back of the body, and in spring molting begins from the head. Spring molting proceeds violently, hair quickly lose its luster, become brittle, thin out and fall out whole shreds. Such pieces of white wool, similar to lumps of late snow, are often found in the spring forest when they hunt on woodcock traction.

In autumn, molting is more even, and its end time determines the start date of the hunt. The skin becomes full only after molting is completed. Usually, by the time the white path (stable snow cover) is established, the whites completely fade, putting on their winter, dazzling white coat. But sometimes the weather “brings them”: the first, unstable snow is driven off by the late October rains, and faded white hares stand out sharply among the darkened autumn forest and withered, red leaves. By the way, hunting in the pattern is based on this particular feature.

During autumn molt, the white haze does not turn blue, like other hares, remaining white. In spring, it is as dark as that of a rodent and thalass. This is due to the fact that by winter white hair grows in the white hair, which does not have a special coloring substance in the roots - pigment.

In healthy, well-fed hares, molting usually proceeds normally, with males shed earlier, and then females. At the same time, moulting in females proceeds faster in terms of time than in males. Young animals of late broods come to molt later than other hares; it also lingers on sick and unre fed animals. Shedding periods may vary depending on weather conditions. Usually, in the central regions, the molt ends at the end of the month by mid-November, and at the end of the month at the end of the month.

All hares are susceptible to disease, so in some years, there may be a mass death of these animals, or pestilence, as they said earlier. However, such a mass death is usually associated with certain conditions - the state of their numbers and weather. With a high number, when hares are more likely to contact each other, diseases spread faster. Damp weather contributes to the occurrence of diseases, especially cold summer rains. There are diseases of a permanent nature, which are practically not associated with a high number of hares and weather conditions.

Some hare diseases are common to humans and pets. Some diseases can occur in small areas without affecting a significant population of hares, while others cover large areas. In most cases, a sick hare is easy to distinguish from a healthy hare. The sick animal lies more firmly on the bed, is not able to leave the dog for a long time, less careful. In some diseases, hares lose their reaction to danger, their appearance becomes unattractive - brittle, dull hair, impaired coordination of movements, thinness, digestive upset. However, there are frequent cases when a hunter finds a dead hare without any external signs of the disease: with good plumpness, shiny even hair. The death can be caused, in particular, by acute poisoning with pesticides, the presence of which in a dead hare is not easy to establish even in the laboratory. It is important not to ignore such cases.

The spread of diseases depends on the sanitary condition of the land, on the soil, local climate, composition of vegetation, the number of various insects, the presence of sick domestic animals, stray dogs, etc. Therefore, the role of diseases in the fluctuation of the number of the same species of hares in different geographical areas unequal. So, for the whitefish in Yakutia and the European North, illness is the main cause of death.

The most common among hares are helminthic diseases affecting the lungs, trachea, bronchi, intestines, and liver. (That is why, in particular, it is not recommended to feed the dogs the raw insides of hares, so as not to infect the dogs with worms).

The denser the territory is populated by man, the more intense is his economic activity. Since the hare mainly lives in forest lands, various forestry and irrigation and drainage works have a significant influence on its abundance in the middle lane.

So, for example, clear cutting, forming large areas of cutting areas, at first, it would seem, create the most favorable conditions for the life of the hare: in the place of a dense, continuous forest, small wood and shrubbery quickly appear, and grass cover improves. But in just ten to fifteen years, the shoots are growing, the young growth moves to the next age group - the pole - and the forage properties of the white-haired lands are significantly deteriorating.

Deteriorating conditions for the hare and the planting of coniferous trees over large areas, depriving the forest of its diversity. Such forest areas become unsuitable for hares. Negatively affect the state of the whitewash lands and some forest irrigation and drainage works carried out in the central regions of the forest zone.

In densely populated primistral regions, the condition of the white hare is more negatively affected by the so-called anxiety factor. True, the hare, like other hares, adapted quite well to the neighborhood with man. But when there is a simultaneous effect of several factors - constant anxiety, various chores, including grazing and haying - this begins to affect the number of hare. It is not difficult to understand what aggravates the situation and immoderate hunting, which greatly undermines the number of white-haired animals in certain areas of the central zone. At the same time, there are many places where the number of whitefish increases significantly, and its reserves are not developed or are not developed enough.

It is desirable for a hunter to know, for example, that caution and reaction to danger are manifested differently in different hares of the same species of different species. It has been noted that males are more cautious, who earlier rise from a lying position, seeing a hunter. Females, on the other hand, are more likely to stoop and fall under the shot faster. The hare's caution increases with their low abundance, frequent anxiety by humans and dogs. In the same places where there are a lot of rabbits and they are less disturbed, they often allow a person to walk 15-20 meters. It also depends on the season: in spring and summer, for example, they are more trusting than in autumn and winter. At the beginning of the hunting season, these animals are closer to them than at the end of it. Young hares and sick animals reluctantly rise from a lying position. All these features must be considered when hunting.

In the behavior of hares, there are many other interesting points that need to be noticed by a young hunter. Each hunt may give him new, previously unknown or little-known information about the habits of these animals. Therefore, a very important quality of a hunter should be observation, without which it is difficult to feel the real joy of communicating with nature. It is hunters who can significantly supplement information on the behavior of hares, which is very important for managing the livestock of these animals. The more we have information about hares, the easier it will be for us to maintain a "hare economy."

  Publication date: 10/04/2015

The main habitats of the hare  - Fields with various agricultural crops, meadows and meadow floodplains, gardens, forest outskirts and forest belts, shrubs, sand massifs, ravines, beams. He especially likes to stay on perennial grasses - clover and alfalfa, on winter crops. It lives in the foothills to the alpine arcs. In the Carpathians, he lives in spruce forests, in Belarus and in Ukrainian Polissya - in pine forests. It settles in the steppes and semi-deserts.

• For the life of a brown hare, not only the presence of agricultural crops, but also the size of the fields, the nature of their alternation with forest areas is of great importance.

The favorite places of the cocks are small fields alternating with ravines, gullies, small copses, creating a peculiar mosaic of the lands, as well as sand massifs, especially hilly sand with woody and shrubby vegetation.

Among the main conditions that determine the suitability of places for the habitat of a brown hatch, are the depth of snow and rough terrain. Mermaid live in the northern regions, where the depth of snow is significant. But in these places the number of hares is always small.

A hare-hare doesn’t avoid human proximity, since it has long used this neighborhood:

• feeds on agricultural crops,
• in the gardens
• melons and vineyards,
• at the haystacks.

Often broods of a hare-hare are found in vegetable gardens in settlements.

There is no particular preference for any type of soil in the hare: it lives on stony soil, and on deep chernozems, on lumpy sands and loams. But more favorable for him are light sandy soils that prevent the spread of helminthic diseases. There is no noticeable need for water in the crows, they are completely satisfied with the moisture contained in the plants. Sometimes hares use water from rain puddles on forest and field roads.

The brown hare is characterized by seasonal movements across the land over short distances, which is mainly associated with a change in feed. Rusak is a sedentary species and lives where it was born. In this regard, each hare has a specific individual area. The size of such a site depends on the terrain and is usually 2-5 km in diameter. Accordingly, the young hare has such a plot less than the old. The size of the individual plot is larger in the open plain and smaller in the forest. In summer, with a variety of feeds, it decreases, in winter it increases. Sites of different hares quite often completely or partially coincide.

The hare leads a twilight-night life, but in areas with a large number and especially where it is of little concern, it is also active during the day. Places of lying (days) of a caterpillar depend on the nature of the terrain, weather conditions, lighting. In the snowless period, on warm, clear days, it lies on the day in almost any place, using the most diverse shelters for this. However, among continuous dense thickets of shrubs and weeds, less often. Quite often, grouse dawn on completely open places - on spring shoots, clover, on arable land, which gives them a good overview and allows you to consider the danger from afar.

The crayfish use every opportunity to lie down in a small solitary cover: a separate bush, a high-voltage or boundary pillar in the middle of a field, near a curtain of weeds, etc. In winter, they like to go to bed with snow blows, in which they often dig a small hole. In winter inclement weather, they prefer to sit on ravines, gullies, and hollows. In severe frosts they fall in forests and gardens.

For most of the year, the brown hare feeds on grassy vegetation, the period of use of which is reduced in the direction from south to north and northeast. Woody vegetation eats in winter, especially in the second half of winter. The role of wood feed in the nutrition of hares in different years is different and increases with increasing depth of snow and the onset of arid summer weather. In snowy winters, when the vegetation for rabbits becomes inaccessible, starvation of these animals is noted, leading to their death. Hares lose weight, are depleted and may freeze. In this case, severe frosts and ice are especially destructive.

The composition of the feed of hare hares is very diverse and includes more than 100 willingly eaten plants, reluctantly eaten - more than 40 species. Of herbaceous plants, cereal Compositae and moth plants, shoots of berry, legumes, wormwood, and some poisonous plants are more often eaten. Especially good is eating grass from the family of moth and shrub broom-shaped herbs. From agricultural plants, prefers clover, alfalfa, yellow lupine, winter. Of the tree and shrub species - various willows, spindle tree, goof, broom broom (Dzharonovets), broom, blackthorn, and others. Eats mushrooms, wild apples and pears, seeds, eagerly feeds on melons. Seeds of grassy vegetation in the stomach of a hare are not digested. In this regard, in a number of areas, the Rusak promotes the spread of plants harmful to agriculture. In winter, eagerly eats berries and seeds of shrubs - hawthorn, wild rose, blackthorn.

A decisive role in the nutrition of the brown hare is played by winter fodder conditions. It is during this period, especially in the second half of winter, that hares can damage forest plantations and gardens.

Hare hare, like other herbivorous animals, need additional (mineral) nutrition and almost constantly experience a need for salt. This is explained by the fact that plant food contains 4 times more potassium than sodium. In order to balance the ratio of these elements, hares need table salt. This is what causes an active visit to salt licks.

• Individual feeds have a tonic or therapeutic value. So, in late autumn, hares more actively eat wormwood, rich in essential oils, the bark of certain tree species, more rich in sugar. The daily requirement of a greenling for a green forage is approximately 1 kg.

The first sign of the beginning of a rutting rut is traces with a wisp, spots of blue urine that appear at the end of winter, and a general increase in activity of males looking for females. When searching for females, gnats use flair, hearing, make various sounds, move a lot. Among males, fights are observed. If even several males follow the female, then one rook remains with her and a temporary mating pair is formed for a certain period of time.

• After a 6-7-week pregnancy, the rabbit brings 2-5, sometimes up to 9 rabbits, which are born hairy, sighted and weigh at birth until 130 g. At the end of the first week, rabbits begin to eat grass. Growing rabbits fast. Their rapid growth is due to the high nutritional value of rabbit milk, which contains up to 24% fat and 12% protein. A single serving of milk, comprising 40 g, is enough for the bunny for 3-4 days, since it is digested for a long time in the stomach. This allows the hares to lie still in one place, without giving out their presence to predators. Only on the 4th-5th day, being hungry, they give a trace, according to which they are found by a hare, who left the hare soon after their birth for another mating. Bunnies, tipping over on their backs, eagerly suck her, getting another portion of nutritious milk.

Young growth is very difficult to detect: rabbits like to hide in shelters and thickets. The little hare, clinging to the ground, is hardly noticeable in the open place - it is masked by the longer coat on the abdomen and sides.

• In terms of body size, a grouse grows to an adult in just 3 months, but there is no exact data on the onset of puberty in females: some researchers believe that rabbits become capable of breeding at the end of the first year of life (meaning the first and second broods), others believe that this happens only the next year.

The size of broods of the hare is different, but the summer litters are larger, and the spring and autumn are smaller. In general, for a 6-month breeding season, the hare brings 10-12 young, of which only 1-2 hares will survive by the next spring. That is why the number of hares, depending on the combination of a number of favorable environmental conditions, usually does not correspond to their fecundity. The causes of mortality of young and adult hares are very diverse, and the percentage of death of young is higher than that of adults, and among adults males die more often than females.

• Possible significant death of young animals from adverse weather, for example, from cold, lingering spring rains. When the hairline gets wet, inactive rabbits lose their ability to regulate heat, the body cools significantly below normal, which leads to death. Subcooling also contributes to strong winds.

• The quantity and quality of places suitable for breeding, the degree of action of the anxiety factor (people, stray dogs, the work of various mechanisms, etc.) are important in the reproduction of the livestock of the hare. Bunnies die as a result of the use of pesticides and mineral fertilizers. Therefore, in modern conditions of intensive agriculture, the action of predators, which include hares, foxes, wolves, day and night feathered predators, does not play a significant role. In the reduction of the number of grouse are not a decisive factor in the disease.

Other causes of death of the hare-hare include high spring floods in floodplain lands, when hares are forced to concentrate on elevated areas, subsequently flooded in floods, as well as steppe fires.

In winter, hares cause snowfall and sleet, when access to food is limited or completely terminated. Finally, poaching, especially firing from under the headlights, does considerable damage to the population of hares.

• In the brown hatchling, as in other hares, periodic fluctuations in numbers are observed, but smaller in size than in the white hare. With the increasing role of human economic activity, the previous rhythm of fluctuations in the number of the Rusak at 5–9 years old has obviously changed, which is associated with an increased role of human activity.

For breeding hare  The southern forest-steppe and steppe regions of the country are promising, where the relatively high population density of hares is still preserved, as well as the territory of the Baltic countries.

In areas of central Russia, the number of brown hare has fallen to extremes; there are areas where this hare is almost never found. The number of hares brought to Western and Eastern Siberia is preserved in small sizes, where they even serve as hunting objects. However, in general, the status of the number of hare-hare is alarming. That is why it is advisable to know more about hares in order not only to keep the hare stock, but also the possibility of hunting for these hares.

Daily activity of grouse hares

The hare leads twilight and night  Lifestyle. Spends the day lying. Feeding time depends on the season of the year and the weather. In April 20012, in the floodplain of the river. The Urals, in clear, calm weather, the first two hares appeared at the feeding site at 4.15 p.m., the other three at 18.15 p.m., the next six at 17-17.30 p.m. and one at 20.55 p.m. On April 17, 1962, grazing hares were recorded at 7-19 p.m., on April 26 in the rain the first hare was spotted at 5 p.m. and the second one at 5 p.m. 15 min. The same daily activity is observed in the summer. The feeding of the grouse ends at 6-7 a.m.

In winter, grubs usually go to bed at 5-18 p.m. and grazing hares did not occur in heavy snowfalls, apparently they do not feed at this time. In severe frosts, they begin to feed at 16-17 hours, and end at 8-10 hours in the morning. At feeding very careful. In the floodplain of the Urals, they usually graze in the meadow, and if the place is open, then in the hollows no further than 50-30 m from the trees. With tall herbs, they “fatten” either on elevations or on the edge of the hollows, where the plants are lower and it is easier to notice the danger to the animals. Having plucked the grass, the hare chews it for 1-2 minutes and, while raising its head, looks around, standing on its hind legs, folding its front legs on its chest. Sometimes he does not get up, but only raises his head, guarding his ears. During the fatliquing it moves slowly, in small leaps.

Fatness of the hare

Closely related to nutrition is the fatness of the grouse, which we determined on a four-point scale: above average, average, below average, and poor. When fat is above the average, the back and hips are rounded. The spinous processes of the dorsal vertebrae are weak. Ribs are invisible. On the withers, stomach and groin there is fat in the form of thickened strips along the entire length of the body or up to half of it. Internal organs are "filled" with fat.

• With moderate fatness, the hips are tightened, flat. In the hip and lumbar regions, the bones are prominent, as are the spinous processes of the dorsal vertebrae. The ribs are noticeable. There is a little fat at the withers and in the groin area. In the abdominal cavity, fat is only on the kidneys.

• When fat is below average, the carcass is “flattened” from the sides. The hips are flat. In the pelvic-femoral and lumbar region, the bones stand out strongly. The spinous processes of the dorsal vertebrae strongly protrude. Ribs stand out distinctly. There is no fat anywhere. With poor fatness, the carcass is strongly “flattened”. All bones stand out very strongly.

For a significant part of the year, grouse have poor nutrition, due to the high intensity of their reproduction and difficulties in obtaining food in the winter due to bad weather. For example, in March 2013, when females in the mass were already breeding, a sharp cooling began. In the area of \u200b\u200bthe village. Chapaevo air temperature dropped to - 7.3, - 9 °, 30 mm of precipitation fell in the form of rain and snow. Cold delayed vegetation vegetation. In this regard, animals of the above average fatness made up only 17.5%. In the years with early and warm springs and an abundance of grasses, the fatness of crayfish increases even during mass pregnancy, which, for example, was observed in April 2012, when in the floodplain of the river. Spring was early in the Urals, there were a lot of green fodder, and 42.8% of the animals harvested had average fatness.

Unfavorable for russians in the floodplain of the river. Ural July, when the heat dries up the grass and lose its nutritional value. The digestibility factor of nutrients of dry grass is about 1.5 times lower than that of green. In the last decade of July in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village. Chapaevo air temperature was 24.4 °, only 4 mm of precipitation fell and hares of the above average fatness accounted for 11.5% of the number harvested. Only in autumn and in the first half of winter are hares well-fed. In October, animals of average fatness accounted for 36.2%, in November - 50.0%, in December - 57.7%, and in February - only 4.4% of the total number of prey, which is apparently associated with eating at the end of winter low-calorie roughage.

Fatness during ice is greatly reduced. So, November 23, 2011 in the floodplain of the river. 12-14 mm of snow fell in the Urals. All hares obtained before the snowfall and in the first time after it had fatness above average and average. Since November 29, it has become sharply warmer, and then colder to -20, -25 °, an ice crust has formed, and the grass has become inaccessible to hares. Their fatness, probably for this reason, sharply decreased, 83.4% of the animals caught after November 30 had a fatness below average, while after the ice, all 16 opened grouse were above average fatness and the weight of internal fat in them reached 100 g.

Hare-hare as pests of garden crops

Eating branches and bark, the grouse often damages the apple tree, apricot, plum, peach, cherry, beech, thorn, hawthorn, hazel, etc., which causes them significant harm. However, the grouse almost all year round eats grassy forages and in the winter only a few species of trees and shrubs are damaged. Harmful grouse and forest shelterbelts. The damage increases during adverse weather conditions.

The hare has a lot in common with the hare. In this regard, we consider only some of the distinguishing features of his biology that a hunter should know.

The hare is found on a vast territory of continuous forests from Finland to Kamchatka and Sakhalin. Inhabits the tundra, taiga, mixed forests, forest-steppes, partly steppes. At the same time, there is no whitefish in the forests of the Crimea, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and in some places it is not numerous in Belarus. The southern border of the distribution of the white fish passes through approximately Brest, Gomel, Bryansk, Chernihiv, Tula, Oryol, Ryazan, Tambov and Penza regions, Mordovia, Saratov and Kuibyshev regions, the cities of Uralsk, Aktyubinsk, Tselinograd, Ayaguz, Lake. Alakol and further along the border with Mongolia and China. There is a hare, in addition, in some forests of the Voronezh region.

The hare is very similar to a brown hare, especially in summer pubescence. In winter, even the most inexperienced hunter will distinguish a snow-white hare from a roe. The white hare, in spite of its overall lower weight, has a slightly more massive head due to the larger size of the zygomatic arches, to which well-developed chewing muscles are attached. The white hare is significantly inferior to the brown in speed. The hare is a real forest resident and is perfectly adapted to snowy winters.

• Hare hare is characterized by wide geographical variability in size and weight. The average weight of individual subspecies of the hare varies from 2.5 to 5 kg. The largest hares live in Chukotka and Taimyr. Unlike the brown man, the white hare in Eastern Siberia can arrange quite deep (up to 1 m) burrows, which it uses for day care.

• As well as in the case of a brown hatch, the habitat of this hare is the most diverse. Within the Russian Federation, the white hare is much wider than the forest zone. But nevertheless, in the tundra, in the forest-steppe and in the steppe, the hare is connected with shrubs and other areas of woody vegetation, justifying its commitment to the forest. Settling the most diverse forests, the white hare prefers such lands in which there are rich grass sections, sedge swamps, blueberry hummocks, young spruce forests, willows and aspen forests.

For the hare is well expressed seasonal change of habitat. So, in the summer, whites choose closed, dense stands, in winter, on the contrary, they are sparse. In contrast to the lying places, this hare usually lives in plantations, where the predominant tree species are not conifers, but deciduous trees, especially aspen. In the summer, the white hare uses more diverse places than in the winter; therefore, in a snowless period, its distribution over the lands is more uniform. In the tundra zone, it lives in thickets of shrubs, and in the steppes - in tall grasses along beams, willows along river banks or in reeds on the shores of lakes.

The hare lives settled, noticeably attached to a certain small territory. At the same time, it was noted that in low-visited, inaccessible for humans tracts, the whites are larger in size. This is explained by the fact that hares do not leave such lands, are less at risk and are in more favorable living conditions. It is believed that such hares live longer. In contrast to the Rusak, in such lands, the hare is more attached to the bed. Young white hares for laying down choose well-protected places: the top of fallen trees, heaps of brushwood, snow-crushed grass, spruce sledding, overgrown felling and burning, etc. Old hares prefer places with a good view in case of a successful escape from danger.

• In addition to seasonal stacial migrations, white hares make longer movements. In such cases, numerous traces of animals go straight, there are almost no stops on feeding. Such migrations were noted, in particular, in the tundra, where large lots of white whales migrate from north to south, adhering to willow thickets.

• The diurnal course size varies from 0.4 to 3 km. The hare moves little in heavy snow and can remain at that time for up to 2 days. In such cases, nuts and traces of urine can be found on the beds. Usually, the whitish on the approach to the place of the day and on the bed itself does not urinate and does not defecate, as does the rook.

Individual plot size varies depending on local conditions from 20-40 to 100-250 ha.

The food composition of the hare, like that of a brown hare, varies seasonally, however, woody vegetation prevails over grassy. The lack of feed is also observed only in winter, when their composition becomes uniform, and access to them is difficult. Consequently, winter fodder conditions also play a decisive role in the nutrition of the whitefish. The transition to winter branch feed, in contrast to the feeding of brown hares, occurs regardless of snowfall.

The degree of eating winter branch feed in different lands is different. Food is more actively eaten at the edges of a mixed forest, in small glades, deep in coniferous forests, less - in clearings, in meadows with curtains of trees and in birch forests. In winter composition, the food of the whitewash is less diverse than that of the grouse, while the nutritional value of the latter species is much higher. This, probably, explains the higher quality of roe meat and the large size of the latter. The daily amount of branch feed consumed depends on geographical conditions.

In summer, the hare eats mainly grassy plants, the composition of which is very diverse. At this time, hares feed more in the meadows, glades, in the valleys, at the edges, where the plants are better illuminated by the sun, more diverse and nutritious. Young shoots of shrubs are also used at this time. Females, in addition, gnaw on bones, dropping deer horns containing minerals necessary for the normal development of fetuses and newborns will be bunnies.

Barks of trees begin to feed on bark of trees in autumn, after leaf fall. It was at this time that a complete supply of all nutrients appeared in the tree bark, which in the spring is quickly spent on the growth of leaves, shoots and flowers. Among many tree species, whites prefer aspen bark.

As well as a brown hare, the hare feels the need for salt and actively visits salt licks. In drought, when swamps dry up, the whites, especially pregnant and lactating females, feel thirst. At this time, they concentrate near forest streams, where they satisfy their need for water.

The reproduction of the white hare is small, differs from the reproduction of the brown hare. Of the most significant differences, the significance of the first brood can be mentioned. It is the hare of the first brood that determines the success of the well-being of the rabbit stock in this species. Young broods of summer broods are more susceptible to death, enter the breeding next year later and bring less viable offspring. The accumulation in the rabbit population of young summer broods is considered decisive in the decline in the number of this hare.

• For the brown hare, it was also believed that the success of well-being depended on the first brood. However, recent studies refute this, if only because the first brood is small and dies more often due to adverse weather conditions in early spring. Consequently, the second brood of a brown caterpillar, more numerous and in better habitat conditions (early summer), determines the success of the growth of the stock of this species.

• The greatest fecundity in the whitefish is observed at 2-6 years of age. Despite the fact that a hare brings in at least 10 hares during the summer, there is no rapid increase in stock. The reason is the high mortality rate of young animals. In the summer, 60-65% die, in the autumn, nevertheless, the remaining young growth forms the basis of the livestock: by the autumn, in the rabbit population there can be up to 80% of young and only 20% of old hares. Moreover, males prevail among young animals (66%), females among adults. As with many species, mortality among young rabbits among hares is higher than in adults.

• The survival of the hare of a white hare (as well as of a brown hare) is due to their high environmental adaptability: milk nutrition, early transition (at 10-12 days of age) to green food, lack of a smell on the bed, protective color that hides the hare among vegetation .

Economic activity also affects the reduction in the number of white hare: development and frequent human attendance of large forests at the same time as the disappearance of small forests. This is especially true for central chernozem areas. More than the Rusak, various, especially helminthic, diseases matter.

There are still different opinions on the role of predators in fluctuations in the abundance of white hare. The general composition of animal species that directly and more or less regularly destroy hares is known. These include:

• lynx,
• fox,
• wolf,
• arctic fox
• marten,
• birds of prey (goshawk, eagles, kites, marsh harrier, eagle owl, owl-owl).

The main role is played by a lynx and a fox; in the diet of the other species mentioned, the white hare is random prey. At the same time, in the fox's diet, the number of hares it catches does not depend on their number, but on their availability. So, during the years of mass diseases of hares, they are more often hunted by a fox.

The activity of predators cannot serve as a cause of a catastrophic reduction in numbers, it only causes a certain delay in the growth of livestock. When attacking prey, predators often have a positive effect, catching primarily sick and weakened hares.

Unfavorable meteorological conditions, for example, rainy summer weather, which, in addition to the immediate death of young animals, contribute to the intensification of diseases, are noticeably affecting the number of hares. The sharply arid summer weather also matters.

The hare-hare is more noticeable than the brown-haired one, waves of fluctuations in the number of livestock are expressed. The nature of these fluctuations, their rhythm, is common to vast areas with similar natural conditions.

In the south and south-west, these waves are the shortest and only 5 years pass from one year with the largest number to another. The farther to the north, the longer these periods are: in the Leningrad Region on average 6 (5-8), in Karelia - 9 years.

Throughout the vast territory inhabited by the hare, its number is different. It reaches higher sizes in the northern and central regions of the European part of the country - Novgorod, Kalinin, Kirov, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Ivanovo, Smolensk, Kaluga and Kostroma. On average, 112 squirrels from every 1000 hectares of land characteristic of these hares are shot in the central zone of the European territory of our country.

The high number of the white fish reaches in the Volga region, in the Gorky region, in the central and eastern regions of the Perm region and in some other areas.

In the Moscow region, the population density of the hare is very high - up to 82 hares per 1000 ha.

This representative of the hare family inhabits the southern regions of the country - Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Southern Siberia. The border of its distribution passes through southern Kazakhstan, from Mangyshlak and the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea to the east to the Tien Shan and Lake. Zaysan, north- to the northern coast of the Aral Sea, deserts of Muyunkum, Betpak-Dala and the northern coast of the lake. Balkhash. Lives in the Chui steppe in Altai and in the Transbaikal steppes.

In appearance, the tolai hare is very similar to a roe and differs from it only in its smaller size, longer ears, a peculiar dull coat color, which does not have waviness.

Habitat-hare habitats - deserts, semi-deserts, fixed sands, steppes, tugai thickets along river valleys, reed and reed thickets along the shores of lakes, and is also found high in the mountains. In the desert zone, it prefers bumpy sands, less often lives in sand dunes and especially clay deserts.

Settles in the thickets of chiya, tamarisk, saxaul, chingil, camel thorn, in a strip of cultural land - near settlements, in the foothills, enters zones of deciduous and coniferous forests and even subalpine meadows. In the Altai mountains lives among the stones along with the whitewash.

Lying in the form of small depressions arranges in shelters with shrubby or grassy vegetation, trying to protect themselves from enemies - wild cats, jackals, foxes and feathered predators.

• The tolai hare leads a twilight-night life: goes to feeding with the onset of twilight, with a dawn lies on a day. This is a completely settled animal with a small size of an individual plot, usually not exceeding 2 hectares.

The composition of the food hare thawing  quite diverse and has over 60 species of various herbaceous and shrub plants. He likes to feed on melons, which causes some damage to crops.

The breeding season lasts from January to September. The 2nd and 3rd broods are more numerous. As in the previous species, the abundance of thalam is subject to fluctuations. But the stocks of this hare are not fully developed. The density of the toll population in many areas is very high - 3-4 times higher than that of the hare. Especially numerous in coastal willows and tugai thickets of Central Asia, in the steppes.

The economic value of the hare-thawing is small, it is predominantly obtained for meat, since the skin is valued low.

The Manchurian hare is a more coarse-haired animal, similar in lifestyle to a hare. In appearance, it resembles a white hare, and with short paws and compact body - a wild rabbit.

• The Manchurian hare lives in deciduous coastal forests of the Far East, in the Amur Valley. It inhabits mountain slopes, ravines, floodplains and other areas with thickets of hazel, young oak. Avoids aspen and birch forests with dense undergrowth from shrubs, old forests and open areas. This hare, like the hare, is a typical forest animal, which differs from it in some biological features.

The Manchurian hare firmly, especially in the summer, lies on a bed, which suits in thickets of grass or shrubs, near large stones, tree trunks, as well as in hollows of fallen or oblique trees, in the recesses of cliffs, badger burrows. In winter, buries in the snow and with prolonged inclement weather does not get up to feed, reminiscent of the whitewash. Sometimes it feeds under the snow, breaking through the passages in it, in winter it may have several beds connected by paths.

Leads a twilight-night lifestyle. Usually lives in a small area, with a diameter of 2-3 km. The basis of nutrition is woody and shrubby vegetation, as well as berries and fruits knocked down by the wind, on the coast it often feeds on algae. The reproduction of the Manchu hare is poorly studied, the gestational age and the number of broods have not been established.

Due to the low abundance, poor quality of hair and small size, the economic importance of the Manchu hare is not great.

Sometimes in areas of joint distribution there are hybrids between the white hare and the grouse - cuffs. This happens only when the male rodent covers the female hare. The hare-crescent is a rather large hare, reminiscent of a white hare in the winter pubescence, but different from it with a dark undercoat. It is believed that the hare-cuff is able to bear offspring if the tumachi is covered in a brown.

This hare has external signs and habits of the white hare and the roe. Lying down arranges in shrubs and in the forest, like a white hare, and feeds like a rook in open places. There are very few observations of these hybrids, so any information about them known to hunters is of considerable interest.

A hunter should have at least a general idea of \u200b\u200bmolting, disease, and hare behavior, which have much in common for all members of this family.

Shedding hares

The hairline of hares does not remain unchanged: periodically there is a change of hair, called shedding. These changes, characteristic of all rabbits except for the Manchu hare, are well expressed in the white hare, which acquires a pure white color by winter.

Hares molt 2 times a year: in the spring and in the fall. In spring, a thicker winter cover changes to summer, in autumn this process is performed in the reverse order, and summer hair falls out completely. Spring molting usually proceeds quite quickly, the rest of the hairs of winter pubescence lose their shine, become brittle, thinner on the sides and rumps and fall out in whole shreds. In spring, molting begins from the head, in autumn - from the rump. During autumn molt, the haze of the white remains white, and does not turn blue, like other hares. This is because white hair grows by winter and no dye — a pigment — forms in the skin. With spring molting, the mezra turns blue in all hares.

• Males are usually the first to start molting, but females molt faster. Young animals from the first brood come to molt at the same time as adults, and young ones from the second brood - somewhat later. Sick and poorly fed hares molt later. The total duration of molting of the hare and the brown is about 90 days. Shedding periods depend on the meteorological conditions of the year, the status of hares and other reasons, so they can change. The features of molting of the hare and the brown, which are the main objects of sports hunting, are better studied. Knowing the timing of the end of autumn molt allows you to set a more correct hunting time, taking into account the output of the skin.

Hare diseases

• Hares are susceptible to many diseases, which significantly affects the state of their numbers. Some types of diseases are dangerous for humans, many pathogens of infectious diseases are common for hares and pets. Of great health importance for the livestock of hares is the shooting of sick animals, so hunters should have an idea of \u200b\u200bthe main types of diseases of hares.

How are diseases spread and transmitted among wild animals? There are many reasons and ways: direct contact with an infected animal (wild and domestic), contact through pasture, water, soil, birds, insects, humans, etc. The occurrence of many diseases of hares is facilitated by the sedentary nature of these animals, rainy weather, and the state of abundance of hare stock. and other reasons.

The following groups of diseases are known for hares: infectious, invasive and non-infectious. Infectious diseases -: a large group of the most dangerous diseases of game animals caused by various pathogenic microbes. Many of these diseases affect pets and humans. The most common infectious diseases of rabbits include tularemia, pasteurellosis, brucellosis, pseudotuberculosis, leptospirosis, malignant edema, false rabies.

• spirochetosis
• coccidiosis
• toxoplasmosis,
• sarcocystosis
• protostrongilosis
• cysticercosis
• coenurosis
• fascioliasis
• dicroceliosis and others

Hares habits

Knowing the habits of hares contributes not only to the success of hunting: it makes it possible to use those behavioral features that make it possible to ensure the selectivity of prey and thereby act to improve the composition of the rabbit stock. It is especially important for the hunter to understand the traces of hares. The ability to read tracks, to distinguish between old and young hares, males and females - is also necessary for accounting.

In places where grubs and white whales live and their habitats overlap, it is necessary to be able to distinguish their tracks. When comparing the tracks of hares, it is easy to find that the white foot has larger paw prints and they are closer to each other than the brown. The prints of the hind legs are more rounded, not as pointed as that of a brown. In the whale, the difference between the size of the imprint of the front and hind legs is less than that of the brown, since the fore legs of the whale leave a larger mark. The hare can be distinguished from the grouse by the shape of the litter (nuts): the hare is more rounded, without a slightly elongated tip, which is typical for the grouse.

Unlike the tracks of other animals, each individual set of tracks of a brown bear has in front two elongated and pointed prints of its hind legs located close to each other, and behind two less deepened prints of its front legs located one by one. This is explained by the fact that the rodent with its very elongated hind limbs moves only in jumps, throwing the hind legs wide apart, far forward, behind the front legs. Depending on the speed of the run, the track of the caterpillar stretches more or less in length.

For every trace, an experienced hunter can determine the behavior of a roe.

The hare's fatty trail is the trail left at the place of the hare. Moreover, there is almost no free distance between each set of tracks, the tracks go one on top of the other. The gaps between the hind (first two prints) and the front paws are usually insignificant. On the grease trail, hares often leave nuts, traces of urine, which usually does not happen on other traces.

The hare's running track is measured, relatively large jumps follow in a certain direction. The distance between jumps is much greater than with the grease trail. The hare usually leaves such a trace when switching from laying to fat or vice versa.

A hare leaves a good trace when it is cunning before laying down for a day. The skid trace remains from small jumps that the hare makes at an angle to the track of the original direction. Very often, with the help of discounts, the hare goes on the road or on the track, on which the track is difficult to detect. After a certain interval, the hare repeats the discount - a huge jump, after which it is not possible to immediately find the track.

A series of methods for entangling the track includes a double, in which the hare returns in its own wake, after which it again makes a discount. Often there is a more complicated trick - the three, when the hare does not immediately make a discount, but returns along the double track, staring him. At this interval, there is always a discount, soon after which the hare settles in for a day, always laying his head to his tracks. However, this also depends on the weather: in a strong wind, a rook, for example, rests its head in the wind, regardless of the direction of the trail. A skid track often forms loops related to the same series of tricks.

Often skid traces pass along the crust, blowing away, old traces, that is, places where it is rather difficult to track the hare. You need to untie the track from the running one, since soon after it there will be a discount track.

The hare's running track remains when the dog pursues the hare or after raising it from a lying person. This track is a large stretched tracks with a length of jumps of up to 5 m.

Marriage traces that do not have a specific system are left in the form of single, paired, group, diverging and converging tracks in a wide variety of directions. At this time - at the end of winter - hares are often active during the day.
  The trail remains after repeated passage of hares in the same place, which is usually for the period of snowy weather.
  All of the listed features of trace habits are characteristic of the brown and white hare.

Some similarities in behavior can be found in tolai and Manchu hare. So, the Manchu hare lies on the ground, also having previously confused its tracks. Raised from a lying position, he tries to run to places with compacted snow, which complicates his pursuit. Doubles and discounts before lying make tolai and cuff.



Hare family

  (Leporidae) *

* The hare family unites hares and rabbits. Hares inhabit all natural zones from the tundra to the equatorial forests and deserts, rise to mountains up to 4900 m. The body length of the family is 25-74 cm, weight - up to 10 kg, females are somewhat larger than males. In Russia - 4 species of hares from 2 genera; another species of wild rabbit has been repeatedly acclimatized in the southern regions.

  Distinctive features of hares themselves are ears, equal in length to the head, shortened thumbs of forepaws, very long hind legs, raised rudimentary tail and 6 molars in each upper jaw.
Brown hare, cuff** (Lepus ewopaeus), whose total length is 75 cm (with only 8 cm per tail), and a height of 30 cm, is one of the two representatives of this genus that are found among us.

* * Tumak is a hybrid of a hare and a hare.

  It reaches a mass of 5-6 kg, and in rare cases, the old male reaches 7-8, even 9 kg. The color of the fur is not easy to describe in a few words. The fur consists of short undercoat hair and long awn hair, the first ones are very thick and curly, the awn hair is thick, long and also somewhat curly. Thanks to this, the fur gets a real earthy color. Color also changes in summer and winter. The female is redder than the male, various deviations are found, dark, spotted, white hares, in short, the color can be very diverse. For the most part, the color of this rodent is perfectly adapted to hide from enemies when it lies on the ground. Already at an insignificant distance, its color is so similar to the color of the surroundings that it is impossible to distinguish the skin of a hare from the ground ***. The soles of the feet are covered with thick and soft hair.

* * * In winter, after the autumn molt, the color of the brown becomes lighter, the hips, shoulders, and sides of the body turn white. By summer, the whitish ends of the hair wear out and the color darkens.

  Rusak bears various names depending on gender and place of residence. In Germany and Russia, hunters distinguish several types of hares, and for them there is a special hunting terminology, which there is no need to bring here.

The homeland of this hare is all of central Europe and most of western Asia. It reaches the northern border of its region in Scotland, southern Sweden and northern Russia, the southern border in southern France and northern Italy ****. Fertile plains with or without forest and wooded foothills make up his favorite places, but in the Alps it rises to an altitude of 1,500 meters above sea level, and in the Caucasus to an altitude of 2,000 meters. He prefers countries with a temperate climate and out of a love of heat he chooses fields lying on the leeward side and protected by mountains. The experiments to extend it to the north failed, but it was easy to breed in Australia and New Zealand. In southern Australia, it is so common in places that, according to Gaake, often only 1 mark is paid for beautiful specimens.

* * * * To the east, the range of the grouse extends along the forest-steppes of Western Siberia to Altai, to the south - to the Aral Sea region, is acclimatized in the Baikal region and the Far East.

  “In general,” says Dietrich Winkel, who, in my opinion, gave the best description of the life of a Rusak, “a hare is more nocturnal than a daytime animal, although you can see it roaming the fields on a clear sunny day before sunset and in the morning. Extremely he reluctantly leaves the place where he grew up.If the rodent does not meet there another hare with which he could mate, or lacks food, then he leaves further than usual, but the female returns to the place where she was born when the mating time approaches the male does the same in the fall. he is a place where he has not been bothered for a long time, while a long persecution drives him away forever.Rousak lives mainly in the fields and leaves there only when it rains *.

* By its origin, a steppe animal is a steppe animal, it penetrated into the forest zone after the open landscapes created by man, fields, pastures, wastelands.

If the grove in which he settled is cut down, then he goes to another place, to the grain fields and vegetable gardens planted with turnips, cabbage, etc. Here he grows, surrounded on all sides by abundant food. All varieties of cabbage and turnips are a treat for him. Apparently, he prefers parsley. In late autumn, he selects fields that are slightly overgrown after plowing, not too humid, low places overgrown with chinton, and fields sown with oily plants, which after winter breads make up the main part of his food. There is still little or no snow, he does not change his whereabouts, only at night he goes to the gardens and looks for cut and folded cabbage. If heavy snow falls, it allows you to cover yourself with snow, but as soon as the weather stops, it moves to clover fields. If an ice crust forms on the snow, then the lack of food becomes more noticeable, and the longer it lasts, the more harm the hare does to gardens and tree nurseries. At this time, he with equal pleasure eats the leaves of his beloved braunquol, gnaws on the bark of young trees, especially acacia, larch and blackthorn. If due to the thaw the snow decreases or even disappears completely, then the hare returns to its former place again, and winter crops of any kind again constitute its exceptional pastures. Until the winter crops begin to spike, he eats them. Then it goes to spring fields, usually before sunset or after a warm rain. He ceases to eat these cereals when they grow strongly, but remains to live in these fields and visits recently sown fields of cabbage, turnips, etc. In the evenings, a hare living in shrubs leaves the fields only in the evening and returns to the forest when the day comes or shortly after sunrise. But during the summer, he sometimes changes his location, moving in the daytime to fields overgrown with tall bread, or, if it rains, to fields lying under steam or plowed. In autumn, when the bushes are exposed, he completely leaves the forest, since the noise of falling leaves is unbearable for him and frightens him, in the winter he leaves in the thicket of the forest, but with the onset of the thaw he returns to a rarer forest.
“In addition to mating time, when the hares are unusually excited, they sleep or doze in their lairs all day. The hare never goes directly to the old lair or where he wants to arrange a new one, but first he will run some distance farther than where he is going to lay down, returns, again makes several jumps forward, then jumps to the side and repeats this several more times until he throws himself in a strong jump to the place he wants to stay in. While preparing the lair, he digs a hole in the ground about 5-8 centimeters deep, carried only extended at the hind end; it is so long and wide that if the hare extends its front legs, rests its ears on it and presses its hind legs under it, then the upper back is barely noticeable. "as hiding from a storm and rain. In winter, usually deepens the lair so that only its muzzle is noticeable. In summer, it turns its face to the north, in the winter to the south, and in stormy weather so that it sits in the wind." Of course, not one observer will agree with this description. On the contrary, the hare usually changes its position, looking at the weather and looking exactly at the direction of the wind, and also conforms to the view of the terrain: for example, in uneven terrain, on slopes, he will certainly turn his head down.
He is extremely afraid of unfamiliar objects and therefore carefully avoids the scarecrows that are exhibited in the fields in order to drive him away. But it also happens that old experienced hares turn out to be so bold that they cannot be driven away even by dogs. Noticing that the dogs are locked or tied, they approach the gardens with incredible shamelessness and graze, so to speak, in front of the dogs. Lenz more than once saw how the hares crept so close under his window and near the tied dogs that the foam from the mouth of furious dogs splashed them on the fur. The speed of the hare’s running depends mainly on its addition, that is, the hare’s hind legs are longer than the front ones. This is the reason that he can better run uphill than downhill, and that in the tracks his prints of his hind legs always lie in front of the prints of his front. If he is calm, then he moves in short, slow jumps; if he needs to move quickly, then very large. When fleeing, he has a habit at some distance from the lair for no apparent reason to sit dog-like on his hind legs; if the dog is still quite far from him, then he not only rises to his completely elongated hind legs, but even runs so few steps, looking around in all directions. Usually a hare makes sounds only if he sees himself in danger, and this cry is like the cry of small children.
  From the external feelings of the hare, as can be judged by large ears, hearing is best developed, the sense of smell is very good, but vision is rather weak *. Of the spiritual qualities, extreme caution and attentiveness are best developed. The quietest sound that he will hear, the rustle of leaves from the wind, the rustle of the leaf is sufficient to wake him if he is sleeping, and to attract attention. A slipping lizard, croaking frogs can scare him off the lair, and even if he is running at full speed, a quiet whistle is enough to stop him.

* The sight of a Rusak, like other hares, is excellent. The location of the eyes is bulging, on the sides of the head provides it with an unusually wide field of view (almost 360 degrees), but the area of \u200b\u200bvolume binocular vision is very small. Ears reach a length of 13 cm, they are mobile, can rotate 190 degrees.

  Mating time begins after severe winters in early March, in mild winters - in February and even January.
Trustworthy hunters argue that fights between hares in love, no matter how innocent they may seem, are not without mutilation; hunters often met in their districts blinding hares, whose eyes were damaged in such battles. Sometimes a hare can suffer so seriously that it is sick for a long time or even dies **. The scratched wool lying on the places of the battle serves as a sign to the hunter that the time for mating for the hares has really come.

* * During the mating season, hares gather in groups of up to several dozen individuals. males fight violently, standing on their hind legs and striking the enemy with their front paws, sometimes biting. Between the male and the female, which is not ready for mating, there are also batts in which the larger female usually wins.

  Pregnancy hare lasts about 30 days. Usually she gives birth for the first time between the middle and the end of March, the fourth and last time in August, the first litter consists of one or two cubs, the second of three or four, the third of three, and the fourth again of one or two, in exceptional cases it is born immediately five or more cubs ***.

* * * In the north, a grouse has only 2 litters a year, in the south - up to 4. The first brood is popularly called the “insects”, the last “deciduous”. The maximum number of rabbits in one brood is 8.

  The birth takes place in a very simple depression, in a quiet place of a forest or field: on a pile of manure, in a depression of an old log covered with leaves, or without litter, in a deep furrow and, finally, on a flat place wherever. Cubs are born with open eyes and, in any case, already very developed. According to some hunters, they have to dry themselves and clean themselves immediately after birth. It is significant that the mother remains with the cubs for the first 5-6 days. Only from time to time she returns to the place where she gave birth to the cubs, and gives them a suck. But in any case, she continues to take care of them, since without her helpless animals would have to die in a miserable way. When the enemy approaches, she leaves the cubs, although there are cases when the old rabbits defended their offspring from birds of prey or ravens. From the first litter, most of the cubs die: the transition from the warm body of the mother to the cold earth is too harsh, the small creature stiffens and becomes numb. And even if it retains its weak life, then it is in danger of every kind, even from its own father *.

* Odor and sweat glands are found in hares on the soles. Therefore, a calf pressed against the substrate, having a critical color, is not only invisible, but practically does not smell. Rabbit. Trying not to unmask the location of the brood with her "odorous" tracks, she rarely visits hares. The rabbit’s milk is extremely oily and nutritious; one or two feedings have a hare for a day. Bunnies feed not only their own, but also “strangers” will be fed. Two weeks after birth, the hares switch to green food.

  The family of young hares reluctantly leaves the area in which it was born. Cubs of the same litter are rarely removed from each other, although each one digs a separate lair for himself. In the evenings, they go out to the pasture together, in the mornings they return to the lairs together: this is how their life goes, which over time becomes very cheerful and active, until they become half-grown. Then they are separated from each other. Rabbits grow in 15 months, but already in the first year of life are capable of breeding. The life expectancy that a hare reaches with us can be 7–8 years, but there are examples that hares, avoiding all persecution, do not die of senility for even longer **.

* * Females become sexually mature six months after birth, males 9-12 months old. The life span of a Rusak is up to 5 years.

  In the first quarter of this century, one male hare was known to hunters in my homeland: my father knew him for 8 years. The cunning man constantly managed to get away from all the persecution, and only in a very severe winter was my father killed by ambush. When weighing, it turned out that he reached 9 kilograms.
“The life of our rodent,” says Adolf Müller, “there is an almost continuous chain of troubles, needs and sufferings to avoid them, the hare, however, has vigilance and caution, but nevertheless, the most faithful means of salvation is hare fear, over which After all, a whole army of our native predators from mammals and birds sends spies, deceivers, robbers and killers behind this peaceful and defenseless creature to turn the quiet paradise of its meadows and forests into an arena of fear and death, because dogs, from a slow, club-footed dachshund, to long-legged a goy, thin, fast as a storm, with a greyhound, poison the death of him, the fastest of the runners, and when the stamina and speed of the dog are insufficient, when the instincts, cunning and bloodthirstiness of predators, bad weather and natural disasters spare the mantle, then a man with his own by means of cunning he keeps ready various means for exterminating the poor fellow.As the most ferocious and treacherous predator, he condemns the one born for suffering also for hanging. A man sneaks like a killer into the forest at night and in fog, lays on the way vile wire loops into which an innocuous animal gets his head and dies the miserable death of a strangler. But this is done only by a greedy industrialist, but never by a hunter! "Books have been written about the correct and incorrect hunting of hares, and therefore I do not intend to go into a detailed discussion of the various ways of hunting. In my opinion, it is most pleasant for a hunter to find a hare in the wake and lie in wait The greyhound harassment, however, is very exciting, but it intimidates hares so much that they cease to be found in well-known areas. Corral hunting, no matter how pleasant it is in not too populated places, turns towards the end where there are a lot of hares, a real slaughter; meanwhile, tracking and lurking constantly keep the hunter in suspense and the most worthy of a real hunter.
  Caught hares are easily tamed, they get used without resistance to any food that they feed rabbits, but are gentle and easily die. If you give them only hay, bread and water, but never give greens, then they live longer.
Different views prevail about the benefits and harms of the hare, depending on whether they are judged agricultural or hunting. An impartial judge, of course, will have to admit that a hare is a harmful animal: it consumes at least twice as much as it costs on the market. In many places in Germany, this is not very noticeable, because the hare usually enjoys little by little everywhere and thus distributes its devastations to a large space, but it is impossible to dispute the harm they cause.
  If the harm of the hare can be considered proven, then this has not yet been said that it should be exterminated. And without that they care enough to reduce the number of rabbits. Those whom they obviously harm and annoy can reduce their number as much as they like; to those who speak out in favor of their unconditional extermination, one can object that the pleasure of hunting and the tasty meat of a hare deserve attention.
  In addition to the just-valued rabbit meat, his skin is also involved. Shoes and a kind of parchment are made from hairless and hollowed-out skin or they are used for dressing glue, and the hair is used to make felt hats. Every year, according to Lomer, 3-4 million skins enter the trade, at a price of 30-75 pfennigs apiece. Over the past ten years, Siberian white hare skins have been used favorably: they are dyed black and brown, trimmed and dyed in the color of lynx or chinchilla fur, and thus turn into very beautiful but fragile fur. These skins annually go into the trade of 1-1.5 million pieces, at a cost of 0.5-2 marks per piece. In old medicine, hair, fat, blood, brain, bones, even hare droppings played an important role, and even now superstitious people consume hare skin and fat against diseases. For a long time, the hare was considered an enchanted creature. Back in the last century, it was believed that the hare is a hermaphrodite, and were firmly convinced that he could arbitrarily change sex, and therefore, was both male and female. The paths that he gnaws in tall breads are also now called "witch paths."
Hare (Lepus timidus) definitely differs in body shape and character from a brown man. “He,” says Miracles, “is faster, livelier, bolder, his head is shorter, rounder, more prominent, his nose is shorter, his ears are smaller, his cheeks are wider, his hind legs are longer, his soles are densely seated with hair, his fingers are separated from each other by deep gaps, they can be widely set apart and armed with long, sharp, crooked, slightly retractable claws.Eyes are darker brown in color than that of a grouse.The whitewash is usually slightly less than a grouse, however, males weighing up to 6 kg are found, in Bunden one was shot, even weighing 7.5 kg. An exact comparison of a half-adult alpine hare with oba a new hare of the same age showed that the first one had a much more cunning and clever expression of the muzzle, he showed more lightness and was less stupidly shy, his lower leg was much more bent, his head and nose were shorter, his ears were smaller, his hind legs were longer than the Rusak; the latter was more timid than his alpine cousin *.

* In comparison with the grouse, the white hare is shorter-legged, has shorter ears. This tendency to change in proportions is generally characteristic of more northern and "forest" animals in comparison with their southern "steppe" relatives. The hare runs slower than the roe.

In December, when the Alps are buried in the snow, this hare gets a pure white color, only the ends of the ears remain black. The spring sun, starting in March, causes a remarkable change in color. At first, his back turns gray, and on his sides, gray hair is increasingly mixed with white. In April, it takes a very strange appearance, becomes spotty or speckled. From day to day, the dark brown color takes precedence, and this change ends only in May. At this time, the hare is purely one-color, without specks, like an ordinary hare, and its hair is more rigid than that of an alpine hare. In autumn, with the first snow, he begins to acquire individual white hair; but winter is more likely to come in the Alps than spring, and color changes in the autumn are faster and end between the beginning of October and the middle of November. When the chamois turn black, their neighbor, the hare, turns white. In doing so, we notice the following curious phenomena. Firstly, the color change does not occur constantly at the same time, but depending on the weather, so that in the case of an earlier winter, it comes earlier, the same thing in the case of an earlier spring; secondly, it always occurs simultaneously with a change in the color of the ermine and the black grouse, which are subject to the same laws. Further, the autumn color change is due to molting; but the color change in the spring seems to occur without replacing old hair with new. First, longer hairs on the head, neck and back, starting from the root to the tip, become blackish, and the lower hair of the undercoat becomes gray. However, it is not yet fully known whether molting occurs partly in the spring. In summer clothes, the alpine hare differs from the brown in that it becomes more olive-gray in color with a greater admixture of black, and his belly and part of his ears remain white; in summer, the brown hatch acquires a reddish-brown color with a smaller admixture of black than that of the alpine hare, and the underside is painted yellow and white "*.

* In the summer, the whitish has a more uniform brown color in summer, a completely white tail without a dark spot on top and dark eyes.

  Judging by the observations of the whites that I kept, Miracles incorrectly described the course of the color change. And the hare sheds only once, and it is in the spring, and by fall receives winter clothing by simply fading the summer **.

* * The white hare, as well as the American hare, or the small hare (L. americanus), in contrast to other hares, molt twice a year, becoming completely white in winter and changing to brown in spring. In addition to masking, a white fur coat helps maintain body temperature in cold weather, reducing the intensity of heat transfer to the external environment. Seasonal molting lasts 50-70 days and is caused by hormonal changes, but hormonal changes are triggered externally by the reduction or lengthening of daylight hours. Sometimes the purchase of a white outfit occurs before snow falls, in such years the number of white hare is greatly reduced due to the pressure of predators. I / it is interesting that the species or subspecies, arctic hare (L. arcticus), originating from the large tundra form, lost its spring molt and remains white all year round.

  "We think that the color change is the result of the already changing weather; the animal often suffers if its winter fur has already thinned, and again the frost comes and snow falls." This view of Miracles is contradicted by other observations. A Russian hare is dressed in winter clothes often before the first snow, and in this case, using the expression of a Russian naturalist, "shines like a star among dark green bushes and brown-yellow grass." “Belyaka,” says Miracles further, “can probably be found on the heights in all alpine cantons and usually in the same amount as a roe in the lower zone. He most readily keeps between the border of pines and eternal snow, approximately at the same height as the alpine black grouse and groundhog, between 1,600 and 2,600 meters above sea level, however it often runs a lot higher. Lehman saw one hare at an altitude of 3600 m above sea level. Deep winter forces him to go down a little lower to the alpine forests, where he can find some protection and free about Snow room for pastures, but hare are reluctant to descend below 1000 m and returned as soon as possible to their preferred height. "
In the summer, our animal lives approximately like this: its lair is located between stones, in a cave or under creeping or dwarf pines. Here the male lies, raising his head and ears. The female, by contrast, usually rests her head on her front legs and puts her ears back. Early in the morning or even at night, both leave the lair and graze in sunny places covered with grass, and the ears are in motion, and the nose sniffs if there is one of their many enemies nearby: a fox or a pine marten, which, however, rarely runs to these heights, hawk, eagle, falcon, crow, and perhaps affection, which could well cope with a young hare. Belaya's favorite food consists of clover, chamomile, yarrow and violets, shallow willow and wolf bark. Meanwhile, aconite and bushes of geranium, which, apparently, are poisonous for him, he does not touch even in such winters, when he suffers a great lack of food. When the hare is full, it lays down, stretched out, in warm grass or on a stone lit by the sun, on which it is not easy to notice, since its color matches the color of the soil. He only occasionally drinks water. When evening comes, she grazes again and walks along the rocks and pastures, and often rises high on her hind legs. Then he returns back to his lair. At night, he is harassed by foxes, ferrets and martens, but an eagle owl, which could easily take possession of him, never rises to these heights. But the hare often falls prey to other large alpine birds of prey *.

* A lot of predators prey on both types of squirrels. Of the birds of prey it is primarily a golden eagle, a goshawk, an eagle owl, a white owl. The most specialized four-legged predator in hunting hares is not a fox, but a lynx. The dynamics of the number of Canadian lynx is closely linked with the dynamics of the number of American hare. In general, the number of squirrels is subject to regular cyclic fluctuations in 3-4 years.

“In winter, he often has to endure the need. If the early snow grabs before the hare has a thicker winter coat, he often doesn’t leave his stone or bush for several days, he’s hungry and chills. Likewise, he’s lying in the field, if heavy snow falls, it, like hazel grouse and white grouse, allows the snow to fall asleep, often about sixty centimeters, and comes out only when the frost makes the snow so hard that it can withstand it. Before that, the hare rakes up a clean place and nibbles the leaves and roots of alpine plants. If winter has finally come, he looks for grass and bark in liquid alpine forests. Very often at this time of the year, alpine hares approach hay sheds. If they manage to get to the hay by jumping, they settle there, often the whole society, they eat a significant part of the hay and cover it with their own droppings, but usually at that time they bring the hay on a sleigh to the valley, then the hares zealously visit the toboggan roads, pick up fallen grass or look for places at noon in the woods to raise The remains of horse feed. During the transportation of hay, they willingly hide in empty huts or sheds and are very careful at the same time, often they take turns observing if there is a danger. If people are approaching, they run away together, moreover, the one who is the first to notice the danger, instead of immediately running away, first runs around the barn to wake a sleeping comrade, after which both flee. As soon as the wind exposes the ground in places, the hare returns to the high Alps again.
  As prolific as the female of an ordinary hare, the Alpine hare each time brings 2-5 cubs the size of a mouse, on the second day they jump after their mother and very soon begin to eat young grass. The first litter usually occurs in April or May, the second in July or August, whether there is a third litter in early spring or late autumn, they still argue about this, but hunters say that they met each month from May to October cubs of a quarter of an adult animal *. Pregnancy rabbit lasts 30 days. It is almost impossible to observe the family life of these animals, since their instinct is very sharp, and the cubs can hide extremely well in all the cracks and holes between the stones.

* In the tundra zone, the hare brings only one brood, in the taiga 2, in the middle lane - 3. Usually 2-5 cubs are born, rarely - up to 7.

Hunting them presents certain difficulties, but it also rewards the hunter. The trail of the alpine hare is something peculiar: it consists of large jumps, with the front legs very widely set apart from the hind legs. The structure of the legs of an alpine hare is perfectly adapted to life in the snowy kingdom. The sole itself is wider, and the legs are thicker than that of an ordinary hare.
  On the run, he widely spreads his fingers, which serve him as if with skis, and therefore does not fail, on the ice he has excellent service retractable claws. If they hunt him with dogs, then during the pursuit he only occasionally hides in the narrow burrows of marmots, but never in the burrows of foxes.
  It is remarkable that an alpine hare is easier to tame than an ordinary hare, it behaves calmer and more trusting, but it rarely stands captivity for a long time. In winter, he whitens in captivity. His skin is not much appreciated, the meat is very tasty.
Wild european rabbit  (Oryctolagus cuniculus) differs from real hares in much smaller size, finer build and shorter head, ears and hind legs *. The body length of the animal is 40 cm, of which 7 cm fall on the tail, the weight of the old male is 2-3 kg. The ears are shorter than the head, and if they are bent down, they do not reach the end of the muzzle. The tail is one-color, black on top, white on the bottom, the rest of the body is dressed in gray fur, which is yellow-brown in color on the top, red-yellow fur in the front, light rust on the sides and hips, and on the underside, on the belly, throat and inner side of the legs goes white. The front of the neck is rusty-yellow-gray, the upper part, like the back of the neck, is one-color rusty-red. Deviations in color, apparently, are found, but less frequently than in a Rusak.

* Wild European rabbit, literally burrowing dog hare. The specialization of rabbits is the ability to dig while maintaining relatively fast running. Unlike hares, it settles in colonies.

Almost all natural scientists acknowledge that southern Europe was the original homeland of the rabbit and that it was introduced to all countries north of the Alps. Pliny mentions him under the name Cuniculus, Aristotle calls him Dasypusce. All old writers call Spain his homeland. Strabo indicates that he came to Italy from the Balearic Islands, Pliny claims that the rabbit sometimes breeds in Spain in countless numbers, and in the Balearic Islands causes hunger, destroying all crops. The inhabitants of these islands asked the emperor Augustus for help against these animals, and rabbit hunters were very respected people there. We see similar phenomena in recent times in Australia and New Zealand.
  Currently, wild rabbit is distributed throughout central and southern Europe and in some places is extremely common. In the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, it is still more numerous than anywhere else, although they do not give him mercy and persecute him at any time of the year. In England, he was bred in various areas for hunting and was very highly appreciated at first, as early as 1309 a wild rabbit cost as much as a piglet. In northern countries, he does not occur: in vain tried to breed him in Russia and Sweden **.

* * The birthplace of a wild rabbit is the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. Since ancient times, it has been acclimatized throughout Europe, up to Sweden, Moldova, Ukraine. In addition to Australia and New Zealand, the rabbit was introduced to the United States. South America, parts of Africa, to many ocean islands. The limiting factor for rabbit resettlement in new areas is the climate, which is too harsh and snowy in winter, or in high humidity and heat in summer.

The rabbit requires hilly and sandy areas with hollows, cracked rocks and low shrubs, he especially loves young dry thickets of pine forests, in short - places where it is convenient for him to hide. Here he arranges in rather comfortable burrows, often in sunny places, rather simple burrows, willingly lives in societies, often entire settlements. Each hole consists of a chamber lying rather deeply, and angular passages with several exits and each. On exit, they will be quite extensively expanded, but the gallery itself is so narrow that its tenant can only creep into it. Each pair has its own separate dwelling and does not tolerate any other animal in it, but often the passages belonging to different dwellings intersect with each other. The rabbit hides almost all day in its hole. With the onset of the evening, he goes for food, but with great care, leaves the hole only after a long examination, if there is any danger. Having noticed the enemy, he warns his comrades with the strong clatter of his hind legs, and everyone hurries back to burrows as quickly as possible.
  The movements of the rabbit differ significantly from the movements of the hare. In the first instant, he surpasses him in speed and agility *.

* The rabbit runs relatively slowly 20-25 km / h. He is inferior to hares and in visual acuity and hearing.

He skillfully knows how to make loops, and to hunt for him you need an excellently trained hound and a good shooter. A rabbit is incomparably more cunning than a hare, it is extremely rare to sneak up to it at a time when it grazes, and in case of danger it will almost always be able to find where to hide. If he ran away in a straight line, then even in this case a medium-quality dog \u200b\u200bwould catch him soon, and he hides in the bushes, in the crevices of rocks and burrows and escapes the pursuit of enemies. His vision, hearing and instinct are just as sharp, and perhaps even sharper than those of hares. His temper has some attractive features. He is sociable and friendly, mothers with warm love look after the cubs who show great obedience to their parents. In February and March, rabbits have estrus. Couples live according to, at least much more agreeably, than rabbits, but it cannot be argued that the rabbit lives in monogamy. In warm countries, cubs are already able to breed in the fifth month, in cold countries in the eighth, but only in the twelfth month they reach full growth. Pennant calculated the possible offspring of one pair of rabbits. If we assume that each female gives birth seven times a year and 8 cubs each time, then the offspring in 4 years can reach a huge number of 1,274,840 pieces **. It has been argued more than once that rabbits, in addition to hares, mate with other rodents and give birth to cubs that can reproduce: however, all the data related here remain unconfirmed.

* * Pregnancy in rabbits lasts 28-33 days. Unlike rabbits, rabbits are born blind, naked and helpless, which is undoubtedly due to the fact that the brood is relatively safe in the hole. There are from 3 to 5 litters per year from March to October, numbering from 4 to 9 cubs each (an average of 6). However, studies have shown that a female brings no more than 10-11 cubs per year (true, in Australia, where rabbits breed all year round, and the number of litters reaches 9, up to 40 cubs). The mortality of young animals in the first weeks can reach 40% or more. Rabbits are sexually mature from six months of age.

The rabbit feeds on exactly the same as the hare. But it causes much more noticeable harm, not only because it lives in a limited space, but also because it loves the bark of trees and often destroys entire plantings of young plantings. It is hard to imagine what devastation a rabbit settlement can cause if it is so prolific, if its breeding is not prevented. “The presence of this extremely harmful rodent,” the Muller brothers say, “has a significant effect in two ways: firstly, it is kept in a very limited area, and secondly, digging underground, it destroys large areas. The devastations that it produces are even more significant in the forest; every attentive forest ranger can give examples of this, Any young vegetation from a simple elderberry to noblest species becomes a victim of his ever-working incisors. What makes a squirrel on a tree, then makes a rabbit on the ground, which he digs in ex directions, causing it harm already one forest thickets, especially coniferous forest on a very loose soil. " In addition, due to their restless nature, rabbits drive away other game: where they multiplied greatly, it is rarely possible to find hares.
  Where rabbits feel safe, they become incredibly bold.
  In Vienna's Prater, they used to live in the thousands, ran fearlessly during the day and did not pay attention to the screams or stones thrown at them. They are not protected anywhere, but killed wherever possible, even at a time when they spare all the other animals. Nevertheless, without the help of predatory animals, rabbits cannot be exterminated. Only if ferrets, ermines and stone martens breed strongly in a given area, or if there are owls and other owls, do you notice that they are decreasing in number. Different species of martens chase rabbits in their lairs, in which case they almost always die, and owls grab them at night in the pasture.
  In areas very favorable for breeding, rabbits can become a true scourge of the country and cause extreme harm to agriculture. In New Zealand, as well as in Australia *, where they multiplied to a tremendous degree and eat around the pasture, they are still struggling with them as zealously as they have unsuccessfully.

* In Australia, there are still many kilometers of hedges that have tried to fence off some territories from the invasion of rabbits. Infection of rabbits with pathogens, such as myxomatosis virus, at first gave good results, but then the animals developed immunity. The problem of rabbit abundance regulation in Australia is still relevant today.

  In what they evaluate the harm they bring, it is clear from the fact that the Wallis government used about 15 million marks in the past decade to combat this evil and, in conclusion, guaranteed a reward of 500,000 marks to someone who invents an effective remedy against this scourge of the country, that is, for extermination of rabbits. Poisons, loops, ferrets, wire fences were not enough to stop the extermination of feed exceeding any measure by these rodents. Pasteur’s experience in France, which is said to have been crowned with success, quickly and completely exterminates rabbits by infecting them with chicken cholera (sprinkling food with bacteria that cause this disease), according to the latest news, has been successfully used in Australia. The rabbit meat is white and tasty, the skin is used in the business, like the skin of a hare.
  Our domestic rabbit, which currently has a different color, no doubt comes from the wild, which can be tamed in a short time, while the domestic one completely runs wild and produces offspring that returns to the color of WILD **. - This term has other meanings, see Hares (meanings). The request "Hare" is redirected here; see also other values. ? Hare ... Wikipedia

  - (Leporidae), the family of rabbits. For bodies up to 75 cm. The hind limbs are usually much longer than the front. The tail is short. The ears are long. 10 genera, 45 47 species. The area corresponds to the area of \u200b\u200bthe unit. In the USSR throughout the territory there are 4 species of the hare genus ... ... Biological Encyclopedic Dictionary

It includes about 300 species of the class Mammals that inhabit or lived in historical time on the territory of Russia, as well as species introduced and forming stable populations. Contents 1 Rodentia Squad 1.1 Squirrel Family ... ... Wikipedia

Homemade European Rabbit ... Wikipedia

American rabbits ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Hares (meanings). ? Hares ... Wikipedia

  -? † Hypolagus Science Class ... Wikipedia

In biology, behavior and lifestyle  all kinds hares are similar to each other. These are animals, leading, mainly, twilight and nightlife.

All day the hare lies in some secluded place and only in the evening rises and begins an active life. During the night, he avoids several kilometers and will visit a variety of lands. He either feeds, or, as they say, chews, then just walks and frolics.

The places of his nightly adventures usually do not coincide with the places of daytime rest - during the day the animal needs shelter, at night - food and the ability to run. However, sometimes it lives for several days on an area of \u200b\u200bonly 1-2 hectares.

Depending on the local conditions and season of the year  hares eat different types of feed. Summer  they are seduced rich grass plots, since at this time the basis of hare nutrition is grassy vegetation. Therefore, even hare-hares go to glades and glades, in grasslands or at the edges, where grasses are more diverse and nutritious. In winter  in the nutrition of hares are becoming increasingly important woody feed: young shoots and bark of various species of trees and shrubs. For the hare, they become the main food. however, although he uses them, he prefers to feed on shoots of winter crops, afternoon, weeds and weed seeds. However, other types of hares do not disdain this food.

It is in winter that traces of hares are especially numerous on the roads along which hay is carried, and near stacks, if they are in the fields. On the roads, hares not only pick up the remains of hay, they are attracted by the increased salinity of the soil or snow, soaked in the urine of domestic animals. Salt starvation of hares is a common occurrence. In winter, hares also like roads because it is easier to run along them. The whites themselves trample on themselves permanent paths along which they regularly cross from one section of the forest to another. In addition, hares, and more often than others, use roads to flee from danger - it is easier to confuse and cover the trail here.

Places of hare

Having eaten up and running over during the night, the hare goes with dawn to search place to relax. In most cases, he settles down where on the one hand it is difficult to approach him unnoticed, on the other - he is reliably protected from the vigilant eyes of a predator. Hares rarely lie among continuous, dense thickets of undergrowth or undergrowth, shrubs, weeds and tall grass. More often, they select a separate jacket or a separate bush among more or less sparse vegetation. Favorite places of lying on a hatchling are the boundaries between which are overgrown with dense grass, flaws, bushes, deep furrows, and also edges of the forest or shrubs preserved among the arable land. In winter, the rodent eagerly lays down at the blowing snow, in which he digs himself a shelter.

Mating period for hares

The hare lifestyle remains constant throughout most of the year. But there are days when his behavior changes dramatically. it mating periodwhen caution and "prudence" leave the hares. Almost all day, especially in the morning and in the evening, not to mention the night, they scamper around the fields in search of a couple. The hare is usually chased by several birds with one stone, between which, due to the long-eared beauty, fierce fights take place. A female is often covered in a row by several males.

During the rut, it constantly happens to see groups of hares of four, five or more animals together. They are so preoccupied with their affairs that they let them come very close, or even they run almost right up close. Usually the hare is silent and his plaintive cry can be heard either when he is wounded, or when he falls into the claws or teeth of a predator. But busy with mating games, hares quite often give a voice resembling a thin neighing.

Hare breeding

Hares breed  quickly. Where the summer is long enough, the females give three, or even four litters per year. In colder places, the number of litters is reduced to two, or even to one. The duration of pregnancy in all types of hares is about 50 days. Each litter averages from three to seven rabbits with fluctuations from 1 to 12.

Rabbits of the first litter, born in March-April, by the hunting season in size are almost compared with adult hares. The hunters call them " insects". The next litter - in late June - early July gives " pilots», « spikes" or " herbalists". Finally, the hare of the third (or even the latest) litter is called " deciduous».

It would seem that with such an intensity of reproduction, hares would have to breed incredibly. However, the "hare" years, when animals in suitable lands are found at almost every step, are relatively rare. And there are many reasons for this.

Enemies of the Hares

A hare is a fairly defenseless creature and enemies  he has a lot. Both adult individuals and young hares, which already begin a more or less independent life from 10-14 days of age, suffer greatly from predators.

Wolves, lynxes, foxes, stray dogs and cats, large feathered predators, both daytime and nocturnal - all of them are sure to enjoy the hare and cause significant numbers of hares. But this is not the main thing.

Hare diseases

The main scourge of hares - massive diseases. Various pulmonary and intestinal helminthiases (helminthic diseases), tularemia, pasteurellosis and coccidiosis  sometimes they just mow hares. Often, animals in vast territories die almost completely, in order for their numbers to recover, it takes several years.

Interestingly, the more hares at the time of the onset of the pestilence, the more harmful its consequences. The disease spreads rapidly, becoming widespread. Where the number of hares is small, epizootics occur less frequently and their consequences are not so devastating.

Climate vicissitudes

In addition to diseases, hares are destroyed, and sometimes in large numbers, all kinds of climate vicissitudes. Late spring frosts, rainy and cold weather in the early days of young animals cause increased mortality of rabbits. If spring came early, and then gave way to a cold snap with a blizzard or rain, then the first broods die almost completely. On the contrary, an early, warm and friendly spring is very favorable for increasing the number of hares.

In the vast floodplains in spring, hares suffer greatly from high floods. Hollow water quickly arrives, flooding everything around. Hares stray on dozens, if not hundreds, on hills and manes that have turned into islands. However, the area of \u200b\u200bdry places is decreasing. Wet, hungry, animals shaking from the cold climb on stumps, on branches of trees accessible to them, on everything that rises at least slightly above the water. They sit on floating logs and ostozh, cut off from land and completely helpless. It is good if the flood quickly subsides, otherwise the hares cannot escape death.

In such a hopeless situation for hares, they are often attacked by feathered predators. And not only real predators. Insolent crows and even magpies, gathered in whole companies, do not give exhausted victims of the flood a minute of rest and, sometimes, beat them to death. At the same time, animals gathered on the islands were shot, poisoned by dogs and beaten with sticks in huge numbers. Fortunately, such wild practice is over nowadays.

In deep snow, blizzard winters, and especially when there are tinctures, it becomes difficult for hares, mainly roe and thaw, to obtain food. Through the icy, thick layer of snow they are unable to get to the bottom of fresh shoots of winter bread, nor last year's rags and small bushes. The animals starve and, if there are no hay sheds, haystacks or high fodder vegetation not covered by a blizzard, the hares die of starvation.

Hares are threatened by many troubles, therefore, in spite of all their “fertility”, they did not fill and do not fill the lands suitable for their life. The average annual increase in the number of rabbits is not so great. Usually it does not exceed 100% of the initial stock, i.e., by the season of hunting for each adult hare there is one profit.

The number of species of hares

The number of species of hares  changes sharply over the years. Now there are a lot of them, then, as a result of some other misfortune, there is almost none at all. These ups and downs in numbers are repeated more or less regularly, at regular intervals. They are extremely unfavorable for keeping a planned hunting farm for a hare.

Biotechnical techniques for maintaining the population of hares

To support the population of hares  at a fairly high level, some exist and are practiced biotechnological techniques.

So, to prevent the occurrence of mass epizootics, it is practiced to attract hares (by organizing feeding and arranging salt licks) in drier and higher areas of the land, where the possibility of infection with various helminths is less. Using the same measures, one can pull hares from floodplains before the spring flood, where many of them could die. A good effect is obtained by catching rabbits captured by flood, which are then released into unoccupied areas of the land. In deep snow and with tinctures for starving animals, grain is fed with waste, twigs and hay. In addition, clearing snow plows with greener plots is very useful, which, by the way, is fully consistent with snow retention.

It is also necessary to strictly regulate the number of those types of predators that cause significant damage to the population of hares in each specific condition.

It is equally important to regulate the number of hares themselves. To maintain their number in the lands from year to year at the optimum level, to prevent either overfishing, or an excessive increase in numbers is a very important task. It is solved by carrying out the above biotechnological measures and continuous monitoring of the density of hares in the lands with strict regulation of shooting. They get hares in many ways. For their capture, there are a number of traps, but they are used, of course, in commercial hunting, c. For a successful hunt, you need to study the hare lifestyle well. Hunting for these animals in most cases is carried out with a gun and dogs or without dogs.

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