Behaviour and feeding
________________________________________
Brown hares are mainly nocturnal, preferring to feed at night in open countryside with short vegetation. Young grasses, herbs and arable crops form the bulk of their diet.During the day they lie up in shallow depressions called forms, in vegetation or in ploughed fields, keeping very still and relying on their cryptic colouration to avoid being seen by predators. They often use woodland for day-time shelter in winter. While in their forms they digest the previous night's forage by re-ingestion of soft droppings.Hard droppings, the contents of which have been digested twice, are produced at night.
Breeding
Mating and breeding can take place almost all year round and the familiar boxing and chasing occur throughout the breeding season but are most easily seen in March and April. Most boxing is actually a doe fighting off the unwanted sexual advances of a buck. When a doe is ready to mate she allows a buck to approach and mate with her. The gestation period is approximately 42 days. About three litters are born each year to each doe, usually between February and October. Litter sizes range from one, early and late in the season, to four at the peak of the season. Unlike young rabbits, young brown hares, known as leverets, are born fully-furred and active. A few hours after giving birth, the doe moves away from her offspring and thereafter visits them only to suckle. Leverets gradually disperse from their birthplace but meet up there each night after sunset to await the doe. She visits to feed them for only a few minutes each day. Leverets start eating grass and other vegetation about 12 days after birth and are weaned at around 30 days.
Breeding success is partially dependent on summer weather, with poorer survival in cold and wet conditions. Average life expectancy is approximately three years.
Causes of death
Brown hares are subject to a range of diseases and parasites, but are not affected by myxomatosis. They are killed on roads, and by farm machinery, particularly during grass cutting operations. Around 300,000 brown hares are shot each year in Britain, principally in the arable east. Brown hares have also been hunted with beagles and coursed with greyhounds. However, most use of dogs to hunt hares, and all hare coursing, is prohibited by the Hunting Act 2004 . Although birds of prey frequently take leverets, the main natural predator of adult and juvenile brown hares is the fox.