snowshoe hare life cycle

If reproductive rates are to vary, only litter size or the number of litters can change. Hares are well adapted for escaping their predators. It also turns white in winter so that they are almost invisible … In summer they eat herbaceous plants and the new growth of woody vegetation. Diurnal activity level increases during the breeding season. The diet of snowshoe hares is diverse. They have 2-4 litters in a summer, with litter size around 4-6. The babies are fur-covered at birth and their eyes are open. In many areas of the boreal forest, snowshoe hares are the dominant herbivore. Males are usually smaller than females. The female gives birth a little over a month after mating. The timing of the breeding season varies depending on location. The only way that the hare population could be kept from crashing was to exclude predators, indicating that predators were the driving force behind the decrease part of the hare cycle. 15, 29, 30, 76. The snowshoe hare are well adapted for their life in the north. It has long ears and excellent hearing. in open fields, fence rows, swamps, riverside thickets, cedar bogs and coniferous lowlands. In eastern North America, the range extends to just south of New England, although along the Appalachian Mountains snowshoe hares can be found as far south as North Carolina and Tennessee 2. Browsing affects the growth of plants and stimulates plants to produce secondary compounds that make them unpalatable for hares and other omnivores. The seasonal color change, which takes place over a period of about 70 days, is a result of molting, and is largely controlled by day-length. Life Cycle : Food : Distribution : Sources. They can run shortly after they are born. The 10-year cycle in snowshoe hares and their predators is a unique, dominant, and large-scale pattern in Canadian forests, and we do not know how habitat alteration will affect it. Thelife cycle of the Arctic Hare is it is born, it grows, it mates and then it dies. The causes of the cyclic fluctuations of snowshoe hares are debated among scientists. They are shy and secretive and spend most of the day in shallow depressions, called forms, scraped out under clumps of ferns, brush thickets, and downed piles of timber. The snowshoe hare is solitary, although it may share its home range with other hares. Download the official NPS app before your next visit. In the winter, it eats tree buds, twigs, bark, and even carrion. This, in addition to their camouflage coloration, tends to be an effective means of avoiding predators. Snowshoe hares live in the boreal forests of North America and are active year-round. Figure 6. But the mechanisms behind this clockwork-like cycle have never really been 100% understood. Although many studies have been done on this cycle, there is no definite answer to what causes it. Across the boreal forest, the population size and reproductive success of many predators cycles with the abundance of hare. Young hares move about soon after they are born and young snowshoe hares usually begin to These and other predators such as golden eagles depend on snowshoe hares as a food source early in the nesting season. The gestation period is 36 to 37 days. Envirogram representing the web of linkages between snowshoe hares and their environment The breeding season lasts from January to August. As predation increases and starvation sets in, the population starts to decline. From 1989 to 1993, we found that 83% of Fig. Snowshoe hare populations rise and fall on a regular 10-year cycle, and when they crash, “life becomes hell for the lynx,” says Stan Boutin, a biologist at the University of Alberta who … Average in each litter have two to three litters per year and females remate soon after the of. 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