Arctic Hare Feeding
The arctic hare belongs to the order Lagomorpha and the family Leporidae . It is considered one of the biggest hares in the world and is characterized by having to live in icy lands, if possible with snow. Would you like to know more about this fabulous animal? Keep reading and check it out!
Characteristics
The most characteristic feature of this hare at first sight is its pure white color with small black spots on the tips of the ears. Its fur serves to perfectly camouflage itself from its predators. Its skin is very thick, allowing it to withstand the low temperatures of its habitat.
They usually weigh between 2.5 and 5.5 kilos and measure 43 to 70 centimeters. Despite its size, what is really surprising is that this animal can reach an impressive 60 kilometers per hour.
His favorite places to live are Greenland, Canada and the Arctic islands, although several specimens have also been found in Scandinavia, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Tundra, rocky plateaus and treeless coasts are the main places where we find this beauty in nature. As you can see, they are all very cold areas where the average temperature is 30 degrees below zero and the snow reaches heights of almost 40 centimeters.
This is a polygamous species that starts to reproduce before reaching its first year of age, mainly in spring, during the months of April and May. They make burrows to hide with their young until the little ones have enough fur to protect themselves from the cold.
Their hind legs are longer than their front legs, which allows them to achieve greater speed. Its body is robust and rounded, with a small head and almost non-existent tail. Their eyes are usually black and very almond shaped.
The feeding of the arctic hare
Thinking about the Arctic hare’s habitat, one of the first questions that comes to mind is what it eats, because everyone knows that in areas with snow and cold there is not much to eat.
Well, her diet is mainly based on woody plants like dwarf willow, moss, lichen, some wild fruits she can find when temperatures rise, leaves, twigs and roots.
Depending on the season, this small animal feeds this way. If you can’t keep up with what the land offers, you can also feed on fish and small prey. What seems clear to see the kind of arctic hare feeding is that the life in the snow is not easy and it needs to adapt your stomach to your situation.
The question is, how does she find the food in the snow? Thanks to its excellent sense of smell, it is able to detect plants that are under snow. She’s a great excavator that doesn’t take more than a few seconds to find what she needs under the ground. For example, willow branches are often found buried.
Her sense of smell is so good that she can even know when there is a meat trap set by hunters, and she knows how to dig until the food is released from the trap. This is a way to stay alive in the harshest winters.
There are four subspecies of Arctic hare:
- Lepus articus articus.
- Lepus articus bangsii.
- Lepus articusgroenlandicus.
- Lepus articusmonstrabilis.
As you can see, this solitary little animal must fight like many others to survive in its natural habitat, but its body and mind seem to be programmed to do so. Did you like to know a little more about this so unknown animal?
