This winter it was hard not to notice all the snowshoe hares darting across roads or into the willows. In their 10-year cycle.
Hares are an important link in the food chain between plants and carnivorous animals.
Populations of many predators such as lynx, owls, fox and martens fluctuate in a close relation to the hare's cycle. When the hare population crashes, disease and the toxins plants produce to defend against overbrowsing appear to be the most important mortality factors. The inevetible crash may soon occur. May. Young snowshoe hares are perfect miniatures of their parents. Fully furred and with eyes soon opened, the leverets are born in litters of usually four.