Snowshoe Hare

Snowshoe hare or snowshoe rabbit or the varying hare has a scientific name of Lepus americanus.  The snowshoe appellation is named after their large hind feet. They are located in North America.  The subspecies are categorized by location.  Ranges stretch from Alaska to Newfoundland and between the Sierra Nevada mountains and central California.  Utah and New Mexico define the boundary to the Rocky Mountains.

West Virginia and the Appalachian Mountains spill into the endless land and rabbits.  Populations in Ohio, North Carolina, Maryland, Tennessee, New Jersey and Virginia are locally extinct or extirpated.  Snowshoe hares have brown fur with notes of rust and hints of honey during the warm months.  The fur is ghost white in the winter.  The underbelly is always gray.  The tips of the tail and ears are forever black. 

The hind feet are massive and dense fur lines the soles.  The ears are short for a hare and serviceable.  They grow up to two feet long with a two inch tail.  Sometimes they are shorter.  Sometimes they are not.  The feet range from five to six inches.  The ears are a modest sixty to seventy millimeters tall from the tip to the notch.  The ladies are larger than the boys and weigh between three and three and a half pounds.

Breeding Season

The animals are found in areas with dense foliage and plant coverage.  Boreal forests and wetlands are ideal habitats.  Snowshoe hares are crepuscular.  They stay in shallow hiding spots in the day.  The nocturnal juveniles are more carefree.  Everyone is more diurnal during the breeding season.  The period starts from late December to early January and ends in July.  It can finish in August.

Gestation lasts between thirty-five to forty days.  Three to five young are born on average.  The elevation, latitude and population size can produce up to seven or as little as one child.  Deep snow provides the hares with access to previously unavailable foliage in the north.  The additional nutrition allows for larger litters.  The opposite is true in the south. 

Females may breed with multiple males.  The men compete for the right to reproduce.  Newborns are athletic and born with fur and open eyes.  The siblings leave the nest within twenty-four hours.  They stay close and return to nurse after nightfall.  They are self-sufficient after a month.

Pine Straw

Snowshoe hares are foragers.  They dine at night on thick green vegetation in the spring and summer.  The fall frost keeps bark, buds, twigs and evergreen needles on the menu.  Birch and willow are the winter preference.  Spruce is avoided in the Yukon.  Spruce needles make up forty percent of the Alaskan population’s diet.  Firs and hemlock are included in some locations.  Aspen and pine are eaten in others.

The lynx is the main predator.  Bobcats, martens and fishers and weasels and dogs and minks, cats, wolves, cougars, owls and hawks and goshawks will consume them.  Black bears and eagles and corvids and wolves hunt the hares on occasion.  Climate shifts pose danger.  Some have adapted and stay brown year-round.  Others remain white and are at risk of being hunted.

Snowshoe hares require coniferous cover for survival.  Shallow brush provides thermal cover and escape routes.  Heavy foliage over ten feet protects from avian foes.  They come out at night when the air is cold.  The snow highways are narrow.  The soles are glazed with ice.  The roads are grass if the air is warm.  The feet are clean.  The soul blemished.  Words are exchanged as they pass.  Tacit communication to avoid the lynx pin.  Unstated whispers from the past. 

Scientific Classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Lagomorpha
Family:	Leporidae
Genus:	Lepus
Species:	L. americanus

Snowshoe Hare Subspecies

Subspecies	Location
Lepus americanus americanus	Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Montana and North Dakota
L. a. cascadensis	British Columbia and Washington
L. a. columbiensis	British Columbia, Alberta and Washington
L. a. dalli	Mackenzie District, British Columbia, Alaska and Yukon
L. a. klamathensis	Oregon and California
L. a. oregonus	Oregon
L. a. pallidus	British Columbia
L. a. phaeonotus	Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota
L. a. pineus	British Columbia, Idaho and Washington
L. a. seclusus	Wyoming
L. a. struthopus	Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Maine
L. a. tahoensis	California and Nevada
L. a. virginianus	Ontario, Quebec, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania
L. a. washingtonii	British Columbia, Washington and Oregon