|
|
Article: Varying hair helps harried hare. (snowshoe hares)
- Article from:
- New York State Conservationist
- Article date:
- April 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
- Life is a scramble for the snowshoe hare
The snowshoe hare has a major preoccupation: Avoid being eaten.
In the hard world of predator and prey, the snowshoe (or varying) hare is nearly everyone's idea of dinner. Dogs, foxes and coyotes run them to ground. Martens, weasels and fishers dispatch them with short-legged pounces. Domestic cats and wild bobcats silence them with claws. At night, great horned and barred owls on silent wings spear them on talons. By day, goshawks and other hawks do the job more noisily. And then there are the human hunters who stalk them during the winter season.
Little wonder that this animal with a theoretical ...