Snowshoe Hare

Click for More The snowshow hare is common in Canada and the United States. It is brown in the summer, but molts to a white coat in the winter. When motionless in the snow, it is impossible to detect. Males are slightly smaller than females. This hare breeds at one year of age and can have as many as four litters in a season when food is plentiful. Population density exhibits extreme fluctuations, and can range from 1 to 10,000 per square mile across the species range. They are a dominant herbivore and eat a variety of vegetation. Feeding on bark of young trees when the population is abundant, they can be responsible for considerable damage. Overbrowsing leads to malnourishment, adversely affecting reproduction which may begin the crash.

Enlarge Image There are numerous species which prey on the showshoe hare, including humans, but the lynx is a specialist. Ecological studies have identified the snowshoe hare and lynx predator-prey relationship as an example of two species whose cycles of population density are particularly tightly linked to each other. Lynx pelts are an important source of income in the northwest part of their range. However, the lynx population suffers a dramatic decline after the snowshoe hare population crashes. The additional mortality from commercial trapping at low lynx densities delays a rapid recovery of the lynx population in response to the growing hare population.

Adapted from: Lepus americanus (snowshoe hare) Lynx-Snow Hare Cycle in Canada What Drives the 10-year Cycle of Snowshoe Hares?