A beautiful new book shows why the hare, with its gift for the unexpected, remains an enigma, writes Eileen Battersby
The sight of a rabbit hopping along the margin of a field, or darting across the road, is as pleasant and as common an experience as spying a robin or a thrush on your window sill. Sweet, cuddly and pretty, the "bunny" is a lovable creature of which specific breeds have been domesticated. It is sociable, active from dawn to dusk, lives in burrows, and gives birth to naked, blind young. For all its obvious appeal, the rabbit, introduced to Ireland in the 12th century, has little of the mystery and allure of its enigmatic cousin, the hare, once a symbol of paganism, the herald of spring and, as folklore has it, a favoured associate of witches.
There is a real excitement, as well as an element of privilege, in seeing a hare, bounding at speed. The hare is a larger animal, rangier and far more athletic. It has long legs, long ears, the running action of a greyhound and a fascinating, bony face expressing the wariness and intelligence of the tenacious survivor. There is no nursery period and its young are born fully furred with eyes open. It is fully mobile within hours of birth. The hare possesses great speed, endurance and stamina because it has a bigger heart, greater oxygen-transporting capacity and subsequently a greater volume of blood than animals of a comparable size. The rabbit is a sprinter, but the hare is a long-distance runner.
It is one of Ireland's 50 native mammals, resident since before the last Ice Age, and is certainly one of the most interesting, not least for the way it consistently defies the expected, genetically and behaviourally.
Although regarded as game and the quarry in coursing, the hare in Ireland is a protected species; its story is part of our heritage. Although some farmers complain about crop damage, the hare is invariably viewed sympathetically by man, particularly when pitched against its natural enemy, the much-maligned fox.
Wildlife books are invariably objects of beauty, because few things in life are as attractive to photograph as animals, particularly in the wild. Yet even by the high standards of wildlife photography and natural history written for the interested layman, Norfolk-based former gamekeeper Jill Mason's new book, The Hare, is exceptional; the magnificent photographs are well-matched by the commonsense, informative narrative. There is no whimsy. Instead Mason responds to her subject with an enthusiasm, understanding and respect born of years of patient observation.
Central to appreciating this book, and the hare itself, is the fact it looks at the hares of the world in general, and the hares of Great Britain and Ireland in particular. This aspect of the book, featuring the mountain hare - of which our Irish hare, Lepus timidus hibernicus, is a sub-species - and the brown or European hare, Lepus europaeus, common in lowland England and Wales, with small numbers in Northern Ireland and possibly none in this State, will mean the most to readers in these parts. Yet Mason has, interestingly, attempted to consider the hare in its wider international context.
"The subject of hares is a much disputed one," she writes, adding that "until 1912 rabbits and hares were classified as rodents but subsequent study proved them to be of a different order called Lagomorphs", with between 40 and 53 species of rabbits and hares.
IN HER BRIEF, comprehensive survey of the hares of the world she makes the important point that in North America, there are four species of hare called jackrabbits. The black-tailed jackrabbit is fairly common, fast and very sociable. It is also useful to remember, that the term "cottontail" in the US usually refers to rabbits. The Arctic hare, native to the tundra zone of Canada, Greenland and Newfoundland, a sub-species of the European Arctic/mountain hare, is, most unusually for hares, carnivorous. Young voles and other small mammals supplement its diet, and this interest in meat, ironically, often leads it to investigate baited traps intended for foxes.
Although hares are not native to Australia and New Zealand, both the brown hare and the highly adaptable Cape hare, one of the seven true hares of the African continent, were introduced by settlers. The brown hare arrived in New Zealand courtesy of European settlers in the 1870s, where it is today hunted on horseback by 27 packs of hounds across the country. Hares were also introduced into South America. Among the 11 "true hares of Asia" is the woolly hare, which lives at higher altitudes than any other hare. It is found in the mountains of Tibet and the adjacent highlands of China, Nepal and Kashmir.
In Europe, the hare population is dominated by the brown hare and the mountain (or blue) hare, both of which we will take a closer look at. The shy, elusive brown hare, Lepus europaeus, once protected by Henry VIII, may well be the star of Mason's wonderful book. It is a creature best described as an enigma.
"There can be few other animals," writes Mason, "about which so much is known but which still remains a mystery. Researchers may have recorded what hares do, but they are far from knowing everything about why they do it."
Such questions aside, as recently as 1976, about 700,000 hares were known to be killed annually in Poland, no doubt due to the demands of the European fur trade.
The brown hare has a wide range; it inhabits Britain, Scandinavia, northern Spain and, beyond Europe, western Siberia, China and north-western Iran. In addition to Australia, New Zealand and South America, it has been introduced to the Great Lakes area of the north-east US and south-east Canada.
According to Dr Tom Hayden, of UCD's Department of Zoology, and co-author with Rory Harrington of Exploring Irish Mammals (TownHouse, 2000), the Irish hare, Lepus timidus hibernicus, is "a local example of evolution in action. By that I mean that since the Ice Age it has changed substantially from hares in adjacent countries. For example, in Scotland hares grow a white winter coat. Hares that don't change coat fall victim a number of predators, particularly the golden eagle, which hunts by sight and can easily locate it against the snow. Historically, a white winter coat for a hare in Ireland would have been an invitation to be eaten. There's no advantage without snow".
So local conditions have produced two different types of animal in Scotland and Ireland.
"It is important to remember that we are talking about the same animal," says Hayden. "In Scotland it is called the mountain hare because it is confined to high altitude. In Ireland, we don't refer to it as the mountain hare, because it is not particularly confined to mountains. In fact, in Ireland it is found almost anywhere, although not as abundantly as rabbits."
This according to Dr Hayden, illustrates two important evolutionary principles: firstly, what works well in one place does not necessarily work well elsewhere, and secondly, how well an animal thrives in one area often depends on how well other animals are performing.
"It is generally believed that two species cannot pursue exactly the same lifestyle in the same place - this means that one either has to move or become extinct," he says. "In Britain, the mountain hare moved to Scotland. In Ireland, the same species had no rivals."
IS THE IRISH hare endangered? "I don't know, because we don't have reliable recent information on the total population of hares in the country. We are not entirely clear about distribution patterns, whether the national population consists of an isolated sub-population which would be more vulnerable to extinction."
Between 1990 and 1994, one of Hayden's PhD students, Alan Wolfe, undertook a survey of the hare population on Bull Island, in Dublin Bay. "We were mainly interested in examining their diet and how they used their home range. Hares usually rest in one place and feed elsewhere at night. The population on the island was seen to fluctuate because isolated populations are always vulnerable."
Hayden points to another genetic study, made possible only because samples of hair from hares were collected at coursing meetings. DNA was extracted, indicating a gene flow, evidence that hares move between local populations.
According to Mason, there are about 300,000 mountain hares in Scotland.
The Irish hare is common throughout Ireland and "is more adaptable than either the brown or mountain hare". A true native with no desire for urban living, the hare, once a source of myth and superstition, is a natural wonder. This beautiful book will help us look at our own hare as an individual and in the context of its British and international relatives, some 23 species of which are threatened with extinction.
The Hare, by Jill Mason, with photographs by David Mason, is published by Merlin Unwin Books, £20