How much does a wild hare weigh. How do hares live
Instruction
Belyaks are mostly forest dwellers, the hare prefers open spaces. Also in winter, the coat of a white hare after molting acquires a white color, while the hare remains gray. Otherwise, these species are so similar that they even periodically interbreed with each other, giving viable, albeit sterile, 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 human habitation, where they can eat bark. fruit trees and hay.
Hares have enemies - quite a lot of predators want to taste the tender meat of animals. Rodents have to survive due to their speed and cunning. Hares not only run fast, sometimes reaching speeds of up to 50 km / h, but also masterfully deceive their pursuers, dodging, returning in their tracks and making sharp jumps to the side. If the predator nevertheless caught up with the animal, the hare uses its last trump card - it lies on its back and tries to fight back with its powerful hind legs.
Hares are widespread not because of their many talents for confusing enemies, but because of their fecundity. In the conditions of the European territory of Russia, the hare brings offspring three times, and in each litter there are five to seven cubs. Scientists still do not agree on whether a hare is considered a good mother by human standards. Some believe that females do not leave their cubs, and during their forced absence, the male watches over the offspring. According to others, the hare, having fed the children, can calmly leave them for several days, and other hares will feed the hungry offspring.
Plan
Introduction
1 Appearance
1.1 Moult
2 Distribution
3 Lifestyle
3.1 Nutrition
4 Reproduction
5 Number and importance to humans
Introduction
Hare-hare (lat. Lepus europaeus) - a mammal of the genus of hares of the order of lagomorphs.
1. Appearance
Refers to 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 body is fragile. Outwardly, the hare differs well from the hare more long ears(9.4-14 cm), long wedge-shaped tail (7.2-14 cm long), black or black-brown 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 13.6-18.5 cm), since the hare lives in regions where the snow cover is relatively shallow and hard.
Summer color is ocher-gray, brown, brown, ocher-red or olive-brown, of different shades. Characterized by large dark streaks formed by the ends of the undercoat hair. The ends of the guard hairs are buffy. The wool of the hare is shiny, silky, noticeably crimped. The sides are painted lighter than the back; the belly is white, without ripples. There are white rings around the eyes. ear tips all year round black. Winter fur is slightly lighter than summer fur; the head, tips of the ears and the front of the back remain dark even in winter. There is no sexual dimorphism in coloration. There are 48 chromosomes in the karyotype.
1.1. Moult
Like all hares, grouse molt takes place in spring and autumn. The spring molt usually begins in the second half of March and lasts 75-80 days, ending by mid-May. It flows most rapidly in April, when the wool falls out in shreds. The general direction of molting is from the head to the back of the body. In autumn, summer hair gradually falls out, and thick and lush winter fur grows to replace it. The direction of the autumn molt is opposite to the direction of the spring one - it starts from the hips, then passes to the croup, backbone, front legs and sides. The longest summer fur remains on the back and near the eyes. The beginning of the molt usually occurs in September; it ends at the end of November, although in warm weather it can drag on until December.
2. Distribution
Rusak is a native steppe animal of Europe, Asia Minor and Asia Minor and North Africa. Its settlement to the north probably did not begin until the middle of the Quaternary. Currently, it is distributed in the steppes, forest-steppes, tundras 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, the north of the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, northern Kazakhstan. Fossil remains 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 shores of Lake Ladoga and Onega, the Northern Dvina; further the border of distribution goes through Kirov, Perm, skirting Ural mountains, through the Kurgan to the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan. The southern border passes through the Transcaucasus, the Caspian, Ustyurt, the northern Aral region to Karaganda. It is acclimatized in a number of regions of Southern Siberia (piedmont regions of Altai, Salair and Kuznetsk Alatau). Produced in the Altai and Krasnoyarsk regions, in the Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Irkutsk and Chita regions. Acclimatized in the Far East: released in the Khabarovsk Territory in 1963-1964. (Jewish Autonomous Region), in 1965 - in Primorsky Krai (Ussuri and Mikhailovsky districts). In Buryatia, attempts at acclimatization were unsuccessful.
Artificially settled in North America. So, the hare was brought 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. It was also imported to the Central and South America; was acclimatized in New Zealand and southern Australia, where it turned into a pest.
3. Lifestyle
dweller open spaces, forest-steppe, steppe, desert-steppe landscapes. Its main habitats in the forest zone are open places: fields, meadows, edges, extensive clearings, glades, burnt areas. It is rare in the depths of coniferous massifs, more common in deciduous forests, although here it prefers light forests. Particularly loved by the hare are areas where agricultural land alternates with small copses, thickets of shrubs and a network of ravines and gullies. In the forest-steppe and steppe zones, it occurs along the gullies, floodplains, along fallows and crops of grain crops. In the mountains it is found up to the alpine belt, living not only in the mountain steppes, but also in forests. In summer it rises in the mountains up to 1500-2000 m, in winter it descends. Everywhere gravitates towards settlements (especially in winter time), as well as to water bodies.
Normally, the hare is a settled territorial beast. Depending on the nutritional content of the habitat, it can constantly stay in one area, occupying 30-50 hectares. In other areas, the hares make daily migrations from places of hauling to places of feeding, passing tens of kilometers. There are also seasonal movements; in autumn and winter, the hare often moves closer to settlements, the outskirts of forests and to elevated areas where there is less snow. In the mountains, in autumn they descend to the floodplains, and in the spring they rise back to the mountains. Under unfavorable conditions (high snow cover, ice crust), which interfere with obtaining food from under the snow, mass migrations are observed. In the southern regions, the movements of the hares are noted in spring- summer period and related to human activities.
Brown eagles are active mainly in the twilight and night hours. Only during the rutting period is daily activity observed everywhere. The greatest activity occurs in the first half of the night and in the early morning hours. For one fattening, a hare travels up to several kilometers; animals living on open areas, usually pass more than those who settle at the forest edges and in the bush. Under unfavorable conditions, a hare may not go out for fattening for several days. A hare's bed in the summer is, as a rule, just a small hole dug under the cover of a bush, a fallen tree or a curtain of tall grass. Often just lies under a bush or in a field boundary. Permanent burrows are not satisfied, sometimes digs temporary daytime burrows in extreme heat. Can rest in abandoned burrows of badgers, foxes and marmots. The location of the hare shelters depends on the time of year and weather conditions. In spring, beds are more often located in warm places; in rainy weather, the hare keeps to drier hills, and in dry weather, on the contrary, in the lowlands. In winter, lying down is arranged on the snow in a place closed from the wind; in areas with deep snow, hares sometimes dig holes up to 2 m long. Often, hares lie in haystacks in autumn and winter, near buildings on the outskirts of settlements.
The hare runs faster than the hare; his jumps are longer. At a short distance, it is able to develop a running speed of up to 50-60 km / h in a straight line. Confuses traces. He knows how to swim well. Like all hares, hare are quiet animals; it is only when they are caught or wounded that they utter a high-pitched screech. The female calls the hares, making quiet sounds. A disturbed hare clicks its teeth, as many rodents do. Another type of communication is paw-clapping, similar to drum-beating.
3.1. Food
In the summer, the hare eats herbaceous plants and young shoots of trees and shrubs. Most often eats leaves and stems, but can also dig up roots; in the second half of summer it eats seeds (it contributes to their distribution, since not all seeds are digested). The composition of the summer diet is very diverse - various wild (dandelion, chicory, tansy, mountaineer, colza, clover, alfalfa) and cultivated (sunflower, buckwheat, cereals) plants. Willingly eats vegetables and gourds.
In winter, unlike the white hare, it continues to feed on seeds and rags of grasses, winter crops, residues horticultural crops digging them out from under the snow. With deep snow cover, it switches to feeding on tree and shrub vegetation (shoots, bark). It most readily eats maple, oak, hazel, broom, as well as apple and pear trees; aspen and willow, beloved by hare, consumes less frequently. Hare winter diggers like to be visited by gray partridges, which are not able to tear the snow themselves.
4. Reproduction
The duration and timing of the breeding season for hares varies depending on part of the range. Yes, in Western Europe it usually lasts from March to September; during this time, about 75% of females have time to bring 4 broods, and in years with warm winters and in early spring- and 5 each. In favorable climatic conditions, the rut lasts all year, and the first hares appear in January. In the north of the range of broods 1-2. AT middle lane In Russia, the first rut takes place in late 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 hares appear in April - early May, the second brood - in late May - June (peak breeding), the third - in August. Re-hares mate immediately after childbirth, and sometimes before them. In general, the rut of the hare is not as friendly as that of the hare, so that pregnant females and hares can be found earlier and later than usual seasons.
The number of rabbits in a brood ranges from 1 to 9. Many conditions affect the size of a brood. In general, broods are larger in areas where hares have fewer reproductive cycles. Winter, early spring and autumn broods are smaller than summer broods - they contain 1-2 hares. Most hares are brought by middle-aged females. Before giving birth, females build primitive grass nests, dig holes or, in hot climates, shallow burrows. 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 5th day of life, 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 at 3-4 weeks they become independent. There are known cases of hares feeding strangers hares, provided that they are of the same age as her own, but this is less common than in hare. Brown grouse usually reach sexual maturity only in the following spring; very rarely, in the western parts of the range, females start breeding in the same summer. Hybrids of hares with whites are known ( cuffs). They were found both in nature and received when keeping hares in a zoo. When kept in captivity, cuffs are able to breed.
The life expectancy of the hares is 6-7 years (in exceptional cases they lived up to 10-12 years), but most of the animals live no more than 4-5 years.
5. Number and importance for humans
In general, the hare is the most normal view, whose number in some years reaches many millions of individuals. The number undergoes significant changes over the years depending on various factors: epizootics, starvation, etc., but they are not as sharp as in the white hare. In the taiga, the cycle of fluctuations is 10-11 years; in the south of the range, fluctuations are more frequent and more chaotic.
Rusak is a valuable commercial animal, an object of amateur and sport hunting. It is mined annually in significant quantities for meat and skins. Can harm winter crops, orchards and nurseries: in one night, a hare can gnaw 10-15 fruit trees. In Argentina, Australia and, to a lesser extent, North America, introduced European hare are a pest. Agriculture. Rusaki carry a number of diseases. Although they, unlike whites, are less susceptible to diseases of the pulmonary helminthic disease and are less likely to become infected with liver trematodes, coccidiosis is widespread among them, especially among young animals. 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 conditions weather. Especially destructive for them are snowy, blizzard winters, which do not allow hares to feed normally, and unstable springs with alternating thaws and frosts, during which early broods die. Predators play some role in population changes. Foxes, wolves, coyotes, lynxes, eagles hunt for hares.
The hare forms separate view and refers to the large hare. This animal lives in the steppe and forest-steppe zones. gravitates towards warm and dry areas mild winter and large quantity sunny days. At the same time, 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, the Steppe Altai and the northwestern regions of Mongolia. The hare was brought to South America, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain. In North America, he lives in New England, as well as in the state of New York and the Canadian province of Ontario.
The body length ranges 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 regions of the habitat. By gender, Russians do not differ in any way. The ears are long and reach a length of 9-14 cm. Their color is gray-white, and the tips are black. The hind limbs are long and strong. The paws are narrow, so the animal is not adapted to moving through deep loose snow.
The color of the skin varies from yellow-brown to gray-brown. On the underside of the body, the fur is gray-white. The muzzle is brown with light circles around the eyes. The winter outfit is lighter than the summer, but the fur does not turn white, unlike some other types of hares. The tips of the ears are black all year round. The tail is dark brown above and white below. Molting takes place in spring and autumn. The change of winter fur for summer and summer for winter occurs within 70-80 days.
Reproduction and lifespan
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. AT warm years maybe even 5 broods. In northern and cold regions, there are usually 1-2 broods per year. The most productive rut lasts from May to July. For brooding, the female makes a small depression in the ground. Does not use the burrows of other animals and does not dig them itself. Therefore, babies are born already covered with fur and very quickly become independent.
During mating games, the female does not allow males to approach her until she is ready to mate. Sometimes bites the most persistent. A common thing is when a female and a male stand on their hind legs and arrange the so-called "hare boxing". That is, it is not two representatives of the stronger sex who are fighting because of a beautiful creature, but it is the lady who thus puts the presumptuous boyfriend in his place. When she is ready to mate, she runs, and the males rush after her. The weak gradually fall behind, and the most enduring achieves the favor of the lady.
Pregnancy lasts one and a half months. In the brood, the number of rabbits is the difference. It all depends on the time of year. In spring broods, there are from 1 to 3 rabbits, and in summer there can 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, milk feeding ends. Puberty occurs at 10 months of age. In the wild, a hare lives an average of 4-5 years. If you're lucky, it lives up to 6-7 years, sometimes up to 10 years. The maximum life expectancy is 15 years.
Behavior and nutrition
This animal is mainly nocturnal and twilight. Tends to be alone outside of mating season. This species runs great and develops a speed of 55 km / h. Running away from a predator, it makes sharp throws in one direction or the other. Not afraid of water at all and can swim. Very rarely changes its habitat. It rests in shallow holes under cover of bushes or fallen trees. Uses abandoned burrows of other animals. In winter, it can dig long passages in the snow. The animal is quiet. Grunts when threatened. Emits a piercing scream when caught by a predator.
The brown hare feeds on plant foods. In summer there is grass, field crops. In winter, it consumes branches, buds, eats bark from trees and shrubs. He rakes the snow with his paws and gets to last year's vegetation. It uses its own feces to restore proteins and vitamins. The animal is large. Two or three hares eat as much per day as one sheep.
Relationship with a person
In some habitats, the hare is considered a pest. Orchards, in particular apple trees, suffer from it. In one night, the animal is able to gnaw several trees. People don't like it, of course. The animal has tasty meat and good fur. That's why this species is an object of hunting. The number fluctuates depending on epidemics, starvation and human agricultural activities. It then rises sharply, then falls and is subject to cyclicity. The period of one cycle takes an average of 8-10 years.
