Irish Masters of                Beagles Association

The Irish Hare -Lepus Timidus Hibernicus 

The Irish hare is a native species with a reddish brown coat, long ears with black tips and eyes set high in the head. This gives it a wide field of view so that it can evade predators. The Irish hare is found in a wide range of areas, including lowland, all types of  bogs, grasslands and sand dunes.

The Irish Hare has long powerful back legs that help it reach speeds of up to 30mph and can jump heights of around 6 Ft (2m). It feeds principally on various types of grass, sedge, heather, and young tree shoots. Hares are overground animals i.e. they do not live underground in burrows but do shelter in a grassy depression above ground known as a form.

Breeding

Courting and mating takes place from the end of winter to early summer with the well known antics of  chasing, leaping and boxing. Hares can have two or three litters a year. The young hares, numbering from 2 to 5 called leverets, are born fully furred with eyes open when born. They are weaned after about four weeks. While upto  75% of them may die in their first year, their life expectancy if they survive is up to nine years.

Distribution

The Irish hare is widespread and common throughout Ireland, and according to the Quercus Surveys in Northern Ireland and the Republic populations have undergone a substantial increase in the last 10-20 years despite the dire statements of the ANTIs and others that the Irish Hare is about to become extinct.  The Dept. of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in the Republic of Ireland has conducted a National Hare Survey using the Quercus organisation in 2006/7 and the results are given here

The Irish hare is regarded as a game species and can be shot or hunted with hounds during the open season from the end of Sept to the end of Feb in the Republic of Ireland. A similar hunting season was the norm in N.Ireland but in April 2006, despite the advice of his experts the Secretary of State for  Northern Ireland, for reasons best known to himself, introduced a 12-month ban on the killing, taking, sale or purchase of Irish hares.

© 2008 Irish Masters of Beagles Association all content