Oh - there you are. Still as a fallen leaf, watching the grass as if it might speak. Perhaps you only noticed me because the light caught the edge of my eye, or because my ears - long as careful questions - rose above the stems for a moment.
I am the Hare (Lepus europaeus - the European hare). Not a rabbit, not a pet, not a woodland creature hiding in burrows. I belong to open places - fields, heath, dunes, and wide margins where the world is made of wind and distance.
Let me tell you about the way I live.
A Hare’s Life
I am shaped for speed, yes - but also for stillness.
Hares don’t usually dig burrows the way rabbits do. Instead, we rest in shallow scrapes in the ground called forms, tucked into grass or low cover. From there, I watch. I listen. I read the landscape for movement, shadow, and danger.
My long legs are made for sudden escape - powerful leaps and fast zig-zag runs that can confuse a pursuer. And my ears? They are not decoration. They are my early-warning system, always gathering news from the wind.
I am mostly active at dusk and night, when the edges of the day soften. I feed on grasses, herbs, buds, and crops - plant life that changes with the seasons. In spring and summer, the world is generous. In winter, it becomes a lesson in endurance.
And then there are the young.
Baby hares are called leverets. Unlike baby rabbits, leverets are born with their eyes open and a coat of fur, ready to stay still and hidden while their mother returns to feed them. It’s a quiet strategy - one that relies on camouflage, patience, and not being found.
Not Your Average “Bunny”
People often mistake me for a rabbit at a glance. It’s understandable - we share a distant family. But look again.
I am generally larger, longer-limbed, and built for open ground. My ears are longer too, often with darker tips. And while rabbits are social and often live in groups, hares are more solitary - meeting mainly to breed, then returning to our own rhythms.
If you’ve ever seen hares “boxing” in spring, you’ve witnessed one of our most misunderstood moments. It can look like playful sparring - and sometimes it is part of courtship. But often it’s a female telling an overenthusiastic male: not today. Even in the meadow, boundaries matter.
Yes, I run. But I also know how to disappear without moving at all.
Let Me Introduce You to My Cousins
My wider family - hares and rabbits - includes many different lives, each adapted to a particular landscape.
The Mountain Hare - A creature of colder places, often shifting into a paler coat in winter for camouflage. Built for uplands and moor, she is quieter in colour, shaped by snow and wind.
The Snowshoe Hare - From North America, changing from brown to white with the seasons, keeping pace with the turning world. She moves through forests where winter is long and footprints tell stories.
The European Rabbit - Smaller, more social, and a true burrow-dweller. Rabbits live in groups and build warrens - busy underground villages that hares (like me) generally do not use.
The Cottontail Rabbit - Another North American relative, known for the flash of white as it darts into cover. Quick, alert, and often living close to the edges of human spaces.
We may look similar to you, but our lives are written differently.
A Shared Thread
I am prey for many - foxes, birds of prey, and yes, sometimes wolves where our worlds overlap. That can sound harsh, but it is also part of how ecosystems stay honest. Predators and prey shape one another over time: sharper senses, stronger bodies, wiser choices on both sides.
But my greatest challenge is not teeth or talons.
It is the quiet reshaping of the land.
When fields become too uniform, when hedgerows vanish, when wild margins are trimmed away, there are fewer safe places to rest, fewer varied plants to eat, fewer sheltered paths to move through unseen. A landscape can look “green” and still be missing what I need.
If you want to help creatures like me, think of edges: wild corners, flowering strips, hedges, fallow patches - small havens that make the whole place more alive.
Thank you for noticing me gently. And if you see me freeze in the grass, don’t assume I am calm.
I am listening to everything.
With bright eyes and a heart built for open ground, Hare
