Snowshoe Hare

Quick Take

• Snowshoe hares have a hidden survival trick that involves water and has nothing to do with speed or camouflage. See their swimming ability →
• Their feet look like a design flaw, yet there is a genius reason behind every oversized inch. Discover the foot design →
• Snowshoe hare populations crash on a predictable schedule, and scientists have an unsettling theory about why. Explore the population cycles →
• These hares eat something most animals would never touch, and doing so turns out to be a clever nutritional strategy. See their unusual diet →

Snowshoe hares live in the northern United States as well as all over Canada. They are herbivores eating flowers, grass, leafy plants, and bark. While their coats are bright white in the wintertime, they turn brown in the spring. Snowshoe hares sleep on and off during the day and are active at dawn and dusk. They can live up to five years in the wild.

5 Snowshoe Hare Facts

• They communicate with each other by thumping their back feet on the ground.
• These animals are great swimmers.
• They are experts at changing direction while running at top speed.
• The species cleans fleas and lice out of its fur by rolling in the dust.
• The tips of a snowshoe hare’s ears are black no matter the season.

Scientific Name

Lepus americanus is the scientific name of a snowshoe hare. The word Lepus is Latin for hare, and americanus is Latin for American. They are members of the Leporidae family and the class Mammalia.

Appearance & Behavior

These animals have two long ears, a tail, and four feet covered with a thick layer of fur. They have a bright white coat in the winter that changes to brown or gray in the spring and summer. This change allows them to blend in with their snowy environment in the winter and disappear among the brush and trees throughout the other seasons. This camouflage is one of the ways they can stay clear of predators.

Adults can measure up to 20 inches in length and weigh between 3 and 5 pounds. A 20-inch snowshoe hare is about one and one-third times the length of a bowling pin. A 4-pound snowshoe hare weighs about the same as a Chihuahua.

Another defensive feature (besides blending in with its environment) of a snowshoe hare is its speed. This hare can run at speeds up to 27mph. Also, this mammal can switch directions in a split second. This hare can not only outrun most predators but also confuse them by taking a sudden turn and dashing off in another direction.

Young snowshoe hares or leverets are known to freeze when they see a predator. This may be because they don’t yet have the full speed and coordination of an adult hare. They freeze in the hope of blending in with their habitat until the predator passes by.

These hares are good swimmers. They may even swim across a stream or river in an effort to escape a predator.

Snowshoe hares are solitary animals, though there are usually other hares living in an area nearby. They are shy animals that prefer to hide in the brush. When out looking for food, these hares use their excellent hearing to continually monitor their environment for threats. If hares ever do form a group, it’s called a drove.

Back Feet

The back feet of these hares are especially large, with a layer of stiff hair covering them. In fact, look at this hare’s feet, and you may think it is wearing a pair of snowshoes. Their back feet can measure up to 5.8 inches long. A 6-inch snowshoe hare foot is about as long as a dollar bill. Feet of this size help them to move on the surface of the snow. This makes their tracks easy to find. The thick, stiff fur on their feet helps to keep them warm in frigid temperatures.

Habitat

These hares live in the northern region of the United States and all over Canada. They live in a temperate climate and are active throughout the year. They live in forests, open fields, riverside thickets, and near fence rows. Forests in the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains are home to many snowshoe hares.

Unlike rabbits, they don’t dig burrows and tunnels; instead, they find shelter in low areas above ground or beneath thickets.

A snowshoe hare moves around but stays within a range of about 20 acres throughout the year. They eat the plant life that’s most plentiful at the time. Whether it is winter or summer, scientists have observed snowshoe hares following the same trails as they search for food.

Diet

Snowshoe hares are herbivores. The diet of this animal is diverse. In summer, they eat herbaceous plants and the new growth of woody vegetation. In winter, they eat twigs, buds, and bark.

Predators and Threats

Snowshoe hares eat in both the early morning and at dusk. Some snowshoe hares search for food alone while others form small groups. These animals are fast, which is fortunate because they are a popular target for many predators. 

What eats snowshoe hares?

Snowshoe hares have several predators, including wolves, owls, coyotes, lynx, bobcats, and red foxes. Snowshoe hares are the main food source of lynx.

When these hares are out in a field or the forest eating grass and plants, they are vulnerable to fast predators such as coyotes, lynx, foxes, wolves, and bobcats. Owls out hunting for prey can spot snowshoe hares feasting on plants in the evening and silently swoop down to capture one.

What do snowshoe hares eat?

Snowshoe hares have a diet of grass, plants, and flowers in the spring and summer. When plants are harder to find in the cold weather months, these hares may eat tree bark, twigs, leaves, and stems.

Snowshoe hares are known to eat their own solid waste. They do this because they aren’t able to get all of the nutrients out of the food they eat by digesting it just one time. They eat their waste to get any remaining nutrients from their food.

Snowshoe hares are vulnerable to habitat loss in some areas. Additionally, during certain seasons, people hunt them for their meat. Despite these threats, the official conservation status of this hare is Least Concern, with a stable population.

Reproduction and Life Cycle

Breeding season for the snowshoe hare runs through spring and summer. Both male and female snowshoe hares have multiple partners throughout their lives. When trying to find a mate, male hares chase females around the area. Both males and females jump vertically in the air and stare each other down. Once a female is pregnant, the gestation period is around 37 days. She prepares a nest made of grass that has been pressed flat on the ground. She chases the male away if he enters what’s known as the birthing area.

The female hare gives live birth to a litter of 1 to 8 babies. A baby hare is also called a leveret until the age of one year old. They weigh a little over one ounce at birth. A female snowshoe hare can have up to 3 or 4 litters of young in one year. She has sole care of the leverets from birth.

When snowshoe hares are born, they have all of their fur, their eyes are open, and they’re able to move around. Baby snowshoe hares, or leverets, spend the daytime hidden in the weeds. They are born in the spring and summer, so they have a brown coat that helps to camouflage them. At dusk, they go to their mother to nurse for a very short time before hiding again. When the leverets are around 14 days old, they begin to eat small plants and are fully weaned at 28 days. They become independent at about 4 weeks of age.

Tularemia is a disease that affects these hares. It can cause serious lesions in the liver, spleen, and bone marrow. It’s transmitted through ticks. The hare can live up to 5 years in the wild.

Population

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species doesn’t list a total population for snowshoe hares. But the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) has some data regarding this hare’s population there.

Every ten years, the population of this hare reaches its highest, then drops off. Scientists believe this decrease is due to disease that runs through the population. However, in plentiful years, the MDNR estimates there are approximately 3,400 snowshoe hares per square mile of the state. In short, after a population decrease, this species fully recovers because a female hare can have up to 4 litters per year.

The official conservation status of the snowshoe hare is Least Concern, with a stable population.