How much weighs a wild hare. How do hares live
Instruction
The hares are mostly forest dwellers, the hare prefers open spaces. Also in winter, the white hare's fur coat after shedding becomes white, while the hare remains gray. The rest of these species are so similar that even intermittently interbreed with each other, giving viable, albeit fruitless offspring.
Hares feed on food that is not held in high esteem by other rodents — the bark of trees and thin branches, leaves, and young shoots. In winter, animals in search of food often go to the shelter of a person, where they can enjoy the bark of fruit trees and hay.
There are enemies for hares - quite a few predators want to taste the tender meat of animals. The rodents have to survive due to their speed and cunning. Hares not only run fast, sometimes at speeds of up to 50km / h, but also masterfully deceive their pursuers, dodging, returning in their wake and making sharp jumps to the side. If the predator still caught the animal, the hare uses its last trump card - it lies on its back and tries to fight off with powerful hind legs.
Hares are not widespread due to their numerous talents to entangle enemies, but due to their fertility. In the conditions of the European territory of Russia, a hare brings offspring three times, and in each litter there are five to seven young. Scientists have still not agreed on whether a hare is considered a good mother by human standards. Some believe that females do not move away from their young, and during their forced absence, the male follows the offspring. For others, the hare, after feeding the children, can quietly leave them for several days, and the hungry offspring will be fed by the other hares.
Plan
Introduction
1 Appearance
1.1 Shedding
2 Distribution
3 Lifestyle
3.1 Power
4 Reproduction
5 The number and value for humans
Introduction
Hare-Ruskaq (lat. Lepus europaeus) - a mammal of the hare genus hares.
1. Appearance
Treats large hares: body length 57-68 cm; weight 4-6 kg, rarely - up to 7 kg. The largest individuals are found in the north and northeast of the range. The build is fragile. Externally, the hare is well distinguished from the hare by its longer ears (9.4-14 cm), a long wedge-shaped tail (7.2-14 cm long), black or black-brown in color from above. The eyes are reddish brown. The hind limbs are longer than those of the hare, but the paws are shorter and narrower (foot length is 13.6-18.5 cm), because the hare lives in regions where the snow cover is relatively shallow and hard.
Summer coloring is ocher-gray, brown, brown, ocher-red or olive-brown, of different shades. Characterized by large dark mottled, formed by the ends of the hair undercoat. The ends of guard hairs are buff. The hare's coat is shiny, silky, noticeably curled. The sides are painted lighter than the back; belly white, without ripples. There are white rings around the eyes. The tips of the ears are black all year round. Winter fur is not as bright as summer; the head, the tips of the ears and the front of the back remain dark in winter. Sexual dimorphism in color is absent. In the karyotype of 48 chromosomes.
1.1. Moult
Like all hares, the hare of the hares passes in spring and autumn. Spring moult usually begins in the second half of March and lasts 75-80 days, ending by mid-May. It proceeds most violently in April, when the wool falls out in shreds. The general direction of the molt is from the head to the back of the body. In the autumn, summer hair gradually falls out, and they are replaced by a thick and lush winter fur. The direction of the autumn molt back to the direction of spring - it begins with the hips, then moves to the croup, ridge, front paws and sides. Summer fur lasts the longest on the back and near the eyes. Shedding usually begins in September; it ends at the end of November, although in warm weather it can take until December.
2. Distribution
Rusak is the primordial steppe animal of Europe, Western and Minor Asia and North Africa. Its resettlement to the north probably began not earlier than the middle of the Quaternary. It is currently distributed in steppes, forest-steppes, tundra and sparsely forested areas of the forest zone of Europe, in the north to Ireland, Scotland, southern Sweden and Finland, in the south to Turkey, Transcaucasia, Iran, northern Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, northern Kazakhstan. Fossils are known from the Pleistocene deposits of Azerbaijan and the Crimea.
Within Russia, it is found throughout the European part of the country to the northern coasts of the Ladoga and Onega lakes, and the Northern Dvina; further, the distribution boundary goes through Kirov, Perm, skirting the Ural Mountains, through Kurgan to the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan. The southern border passes through the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, Ustyurt, northern Aral to Karaganda. Acclimatized in a number of regions of Southern Siberia (foothill areas of Altai, Salair and Kuznetsk Alatau). It was produced in the Altai and Krasnoyarsk Territories, in the Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Irkutsk and Chita regions. Acclimatized in the Far East: in the Khabarovsk Territory released in 1963-1964. (Jewish Autonomous Region), in 1965 - in the Primorsky Territory (Ussuriysky and Mikhailovsky Districts). In Buryatia, attempts to acclimatize were unsuccessful.
Artificially settled in North America. So, the hare was introduced to the state of New York in 1893 and in 1912 to the province of Ontario (Canada). Now found mainly in the Great Lakes region. Delivered to Central and South America; was acclimatized in New Zealand and southern Australia, where it turned into a pest.
3. Lifestyle
The inhabitant of open spaces, forest-steppe, steppe, desert-steppe landscapes. Its main habitats in the forest zone are open spaces: fields, meadows, forest edges, extensive clearings, glades, and soot. In the depths of coniferous forests is rare, more common in deciduous forests, although here it prefers light forest. The hare is especially loved by the land, where agricultural land alternates with small woods, bushes and a network of ravines and gullies. In the forest-steppe and steppe zones found on the beams, floodplains of rivers, on deposits and crops of grain crops. It is found in the mountains up to the alpine belt, inhabiting not only mountain steppes, but also forests. In summer it rises in the mountains up to 1500-2000 m, in winter it goes down. Everywhere, to the settlements (especially in winter), as well as to water bodies.
Normally, hare is a settled territorial beast. Depending on the forage habitat, it can constantly keep on one site occupying 30-50 hectares. In other areas, hares make daily migrations from the places of their beds to the places of feeding, walking ten kilometers. Seasonal movements also occur; In the fall and winter, the hare often moves closer to settlements, forest margins and to elevated areas where there is less snow. In the mountains, in the fall they descend into the floodplains of the rivers, and in the spring they rise back to the mountains. Under adverse conditions (high snow cover, ice crust) that interfere with getting forage from under the snow, there is a massive displacement. In the southern areas, the movements of hare are noted in the spring-summer period and are associated with human economic activity.
Rusacs are active mainly in twilight and night hours. Only during the rut period, daily activity is observed everywhere. The greatest activity occurs in the first half of the night and in the early morning hours. For one fat hare runs up to several kilometers; animals living in open areas usually pass more than those inhabiting forest edges and shrubs. Under adverse conditions the hare may not go out for a few days. A hare in the summertime is usually just a small hole dug under the cover of a bush, a fallen tree or a clump of tall grass. Often just lies under a bush or in a field border. Permanent holes do not suit, sometimes digs temporary daytime holes with extreme heat. It can rest in the abandoned burrows of badgers, foxes and marmots. The location of the Ruska shelters depends on the season and weather conditions. In spring, the beds are often located in heated places; in rainy weather, the hare keeps on dry elevations, and in dry, on the contrary, in lowlands. In winter, the bed is arranged in the snow in a place closed to the wind; in areas with deep snow, hare hacks sometimes dig holes up to 2 m in length. Often hare lay in autumn and winter in haystacks, near buildings on the outskirts of settlements.
A hare runs faster than a white hare; his jumps are longer. At a short distance, it is able to reach a running speed of up to 50-60 km / h in a straight line. Confuses the tracks. Can swim well. Like all hares, hares are silent animals; only when they are caught or wounded do they emit a high piercing cry. The female calls for a hare, making quiet sounds. A disturbed hare cracks his teeth, like many rodents do. Another type of communication is pounding like pounding a drum.
3.1. Nutrition
In summer, the hare feeds on grassy plants and young shoots of trees and shrubs. Most often eats leaves and stems, but can dig up and roots; in the second half of summer, it eats seeds (contributes to their distribution, since not all seeds are digested). The composition of the summer ration feed is very diverse - various wild-growing (dandelion, chicory, tansy, bird mountaineer, colza, clover, alfalfa) and cultivated (sunflower, buckwheat, cereals) plants. Willingly eats vegetables and melons.
In winter, unlike the white hare, it continues to feed on seeds and rags of grasses, winter crops, remnants of garden crops, digging them out from under the snow. With a deep snow cover, it switches to feeding on woody and shrub vegetation (shoots, bark). Most eagerly eats maple, oak, hazel, broom, as well as apples and pears; aspen and willow, favorite white hair, consumes less. Bunny winter pigs love to visit the gray partridges, who are not able to dig up the snow themselves.
4. Reproduction
The duration and timing of the breeding season of hares differ depending on the part of the range. So, in Western Europe it usually lasts from March to September; During this time, about 75% of females have time to bring 4 broods each, and in the years with warm winter and early spring - and by 5. In favorable climatic conditions the rut lasts all year, and the first rabbits appear already in January. In the north of brood range 1-2. In central Russia, the first rut takes place at the end of February - March (males are active from January), the second - in April - early May, the third - in June. Pregnancy lasts 45-48 days, so the first rabbits appear in April - early May, the second brood - at the end of May - June (reproduction peak), the third - in August. Re-hares mate immediately after childbirth, and sometimes before. In general, the rut of the Rusakov does not go together as well as that of the hares, so that pregnant females and hares can be found earlier and later than normal seasons.
The number of hares in a brood ranges from 1 to 9. Many conditions affect the brood size. In general, broods are larger in areas where hares have fewer reproductive cycles. Winter, early spring and autumn broods are less summer, in them 1-2 hare. Middle-aged females bring the most hares. Before giving birth, females make primitive nests of grass, dig holes, or, in hot climates, shallow burrows. The hares are born sighted and covered with fur, weighing 80-150 g. The female comes to feed the offspring once a day, and sometimes less often - up to 1 time in 4 days. From the fifth day of life, the hares begin to move near the place of birth; by 2 weeks they reach a weight of 300-400 g and are already actively eating grass, and in 3-4 weeks they become independent. There are known cases of feeding hares of foreign hares, provided that they are of the same age as her own, but this is observed less often than in a white hare. The hares usually reach sexual maturity only the following spring; very rarely, in the western parts of the range, females start breeding on the same summer. Known hybrids of Rusakov with white hare ( cuffs). They were found both in nature and obtained when keeping hares in the zoo. When kept in captivity, cuffs are able to multiply.
The life span of hares is 6–7 years (in exceptional cases they lived to be 10–12 years old), but most animals live no more than 4–5 years.
5. The number and importance for humans
In general, the brown hare is the most common species, whose numbers in some years reach many millions of individuals. The number is experiencing significant changes over the years depending on various factors: epizootic, fodder, etc., but they are not as sharp as those of the hare. In the taiga, the cycle of oscillations is 10-11 years; in the south of the range, oscillations are more frequent and more disorderly.
Rusak is a valuable commercial animal, an object of amateur and sport hunting. It is produced annually in significant quantities for the sake of meat and skins. It can harm winter crops, orchards and nurseries: a hare can gnaw 10-15 fruit trees overnight. In Argentina, Australia and, to a lesser extent, in North America, introduced rusaks are pests of agriculture. Rusaki suffer a number of diseases. Although, unlike whites, they are less susceptible to diseases of pulmonary worm disease and less likely to become infected with hepatic trematodes, coccidiosis is widespread among them, especially among young. Mass mortality from this disease occurs between the ages of 5 weeks and 5 months. Epizootics of pasteurellosis, tularemia, porcine brucellosis and other infectious diseases are known; is a carrier of toxoplasmosis. Rusaks are more likely than whites to suffer from adverse weather conditions. Multi-snow, snow-covered winters, which do not allow hares to feed normally, and unstable springs with alternating thaws and frosts, during which early broods perish, are especially destructive for them. Predators play a certain role in changes in their numbers. Foxes, wolves, coyotes, lynxes, eagles hunt hares.
The hare forms a separate species and belongs to a large hare. This animal lives in the steppe and forest-steppe zones. To warm and dry areas with mild winters and lots of sunny days. In this case, the annual duration of snow cover usually does not exceed 2 months. This species is distributed throughout Europe with the exception of Spain and Scandinavia. The animal inhabits Asia Minor, Kazakhstan, Steppe Altai and northwestern regions of Mongolia. The hare is imported to South America, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. In North America, she lives in New England, as well as in New York State and the Canadian province of Ontario.
The body length varies from 55 to 70 cm. The tail is large, wedge-shaped and reaches a length of 7-13 cm. The mass is 4-7 kg. The largest representatives of the species live in the northern and northeastern areas of the habitat. The hare hacks have no difference. The ears are long and reach a length of 9-14 cm. Their color is gray-white, and the tips are black. Hind limbs long and strong. The paws are narrow, so the animal is not adapted for movement in deep, loose snow.
The skin color varies from yellow-brown to gray-brown. On the underside of the trunk is gray-white fur. The muzzle is brown with light circles around the eyes. The winter outfit is lighter than the summer one, but the fur is not white, unlike some other types of hares. The tips of the ears are black all year round. The tail is dark brown above, white below. Shedding takes place in spring and autumn. Change of winter fur for summer and summer for winter occurs within 70-80 days.
Reproduction and longevity
The hare is a very prolific animal. The breeding season lasts from January to August. In this case, the female brings at least 4 broods. In warm years there may even be 5 broods. In the northern and cold areas, there are usually 1-2 broods per year. The most productive rut lasts from May to July. For broods, the female makes a slight depression in the ground. Does not use the holes of other animals and does not dig them herself. Therefore, babies are born already covered with fur and very quickly become independent.
During mating games, the female does not allow the males to come to her until she is ready to mate. Sometimes bites the most stubborn. The usual thing is when the female and the male stand on their hind legs and arrange the so-called “rabbit box”. That is, it is not two representatives of the strong sex who fight because of the beautiful creation, namely, the lady thus puts the presumptuous boyfriend in place. When it is ready to mate, it runs, and the males rush after it. The weak gradually lag behind, and the hardiest achieves the favor of the ladies.
Pregnancy lasts a month and a half. In brood the number of hares is the difference. It all depends on the time of year. In spring broods, there are from 1 to 3 hares, and in the summer period there may be 9. Babies weigh 100-150 grams and grow very quickly. By the second month of life, they become completely independent. At the same time dairy feeding ends. Puberty occurs at 10 months of life. In the wild, the brown hare lives on average 4-5 years. If you are lucky, it lives to 6-7 years, sometimes to 10 years. The maximum lifespan is 15 years.
Behavior and nutrition
This animal is mainly nocturnal and twilight lifestyle. To loneliness outside the marriage period. This kind of great runs and develops a speed of 55 km / h. Running away from a predator, makes sharp throws in one direction or the other. Not at all afraid of water and can swim. Very rarely changes its habitat. Resting in shallow pits under the guise of bushes or fallen trees. Uses the abandoned burrows of other animals. In winter, it can dig long passages in the snow. The animal is quiet. Under the threat of grumbles. Makes a piercing scream if caught by a predator.
The hare hare feeds on plant food. In the summer there is grass, field crops. In winter, it consumes branches, buds, eats bark from trees and shrubs. Pound snow paws and gets to last year's vegetation. To restore proteins and vitamins it uses its feces in food. A large animal. Two or three hares eat per day as much as one sheep.
Human relationship
In some of its habitats, the hare is considered a pest. It suffers from gardens, in particular apple trees. In one night, the animal is able to gnaw a few trees. People naturally don’t like it. The animal has tasty meat and good fur. Therefore, this species is the object of hunting. The number varies depending on the epidemics, starvation and human agricultural activities. It then increases sharply, then falls and is subject to cyclicity. The period of one cycle takes an average of 8-10 years.
