Winter is a tough time to catch animals on the trail.  They are either hibernating or just trying to stay warm and find a good meal!  On this hike, the weather was iffy, so most animals were just hunkering down, waiting for things to become warm and dry again.  But we did see evidence of one animal – the tracks of a snowshoe hare.

Massachusetts is home to two native species of rabbits— the Snowshoe Hare and New England Cottontail and the non-native Eastern Cottontail. Hares and rabbits are related, but hares tend to be larger than rabbits and have longer legs and ears.  Hares are born with fur and open eyes, ready to hop around within a day. Newborn rabbits are nearly naked and blind for about a week. And finally, when threatened, rabbits try to blend into the scenery but hares make a run for it.  I think I am a hare.

They also prefer different habitats. The Snowshoe Hare depends on forests with a dense softwood cover, such as spruce, fir or hemlock mixed with some hardwoods and scattered openings. Mount Greylock is just that environment.  These areas give protection from predators and a diversity of food. In the summer, hares feed on grasses, clover, ferns and berries. When winter snows descend, the menu shifts to twigs, buds and bark of small trees and shrubs. Hares are shy and secretive and spend most of the day in shallow depressions, called forms, scraped out under clumps of ferns, brush thickets, and downed piles of timber.

Hares and rabbits remain active all winter. Snowshoe hares turn white, letting them blend in with a snowy backdrop. They have large back feet with spreading fur-covered toes for traveling over deep snow, as if they were wearing snowshoes!  Because of these adaptive mechanisms, the range of the Snowshoe Hare covers more northern and higher elevation regions.  When the seasons change to spring and summer, snowshoe hares turn a reddish-brown. This color helps them camouflage with dirt and rocks.  But not every part of the snowshoe hare changes color throughout the year. An important identification trick is to look at a snowshoe hare’s ears. The tips of the ears are always black, no matter the season.

Snowshoe hares are nocturnal, so they’re more likely to be seen at dawn and dusk. These animals have acute hearing and are able to detect predators.  The hares reach maturity after one year. Many hares do not live this long. But some hares can live as long as five years in the wild.

Hares have many predators including black bears, Canada lynx, bobcats, fishers, American martens, long-tailed weasels, minks, foxes, coyote, domestic dogs, domestic cats, wolves, mountain lions, great horned owls, barred owls, spotted owls, red-tailed hawks, northern goshawks, golden eagles, and crows and ravens.

Vegetative structure plays an important role in the size of snowshoe hare home ranges. Snowshoe hares wander up to 5 miles (8 km) when food is scarce.  Rabbits and hares are also very wary, given that they are low on the food chain. You will be lucky if you see one.

Source of information:  “Take Me Outside:  Spotting the Wary Local Rabbit”, Ruth Smith, Berkshire Eagle, December 16, 2018

National Wildlife Federation, https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Snowshoe-Hare

Wikipedia, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowshoe_hare