Rabbit hare does not look like Akimushkin. What is the difference between a hare and a rabbit? Hare - description, characteristics, appearance. What does a hare look like

Excerpts from Igor Akimushkin's book "Whims of Nature"

Outwardly very small. Only the ears and legs of a rabbit are shorter than those of a hare. But in habits they have a lot of different things. Hares, for example, do not dig holes in the ground, but rabbits dig, and live in them. In the same place, the rabbits will be born - on a bed of grass and fluff.

The rabbits were born. Quite small. Naked, hairless, blind, deaf, barely crawling. Weeks through two only eyes at them open.

The mother rabbit almost never leaves her children. It will run, eat some leaves and again hurries into the hole to the kids. When he feeds them with milk, he lies, does not sit like a hare. The rabbit father does not live with his family, he does not take care of the children, he walks on his own.

And the hare always guards the rabbits hiding in the grass. He drives small enemies boldly away, large ones that he cannot cope with, distracts with cunning maneuvers, leading away from the hares.

And those are not at all helpless, not blind, but naked, like rabbits. And they will not be born in a hole, but right on the ground, in a shallow hole. As soon as they were born, they immediately know how to run. Here their mother leaves them alone. Maybe only the next day he will come running to them. In her entire life, she will feed them milk only a few times. And after that, they themselves eat all kinds of greens.

Niklas - boy 10 years old

If a strange hare (not a mother) finds a hare lurking in the grass, then she will definitely feed him, will not run past. But rabbits do not have such an order: the rabbit will not feed other people's children.

In appearance, the rabbit looks just like a hare. He has the same long ears and hind legs, the same short tail-flower, the same muzzle. But the habits of a rabbit are not similar to a hare. Oh how different!

Rabbits are born in a hole, on a bed of grass and fluff (for now I'm talking only about wild rabbits - domestic rabbits will be born in cages).

And so, the rabbits were born. Quite small. Hairless - without hair, blind, deaf. They barely crawl. In about two weeks, their eyes will only open.

The mother rabbit almost never leaves her children. She will run, eat some leaves and again hurries to the hole to her babies. When he feeds them with milk, he sits, and does not lie, like a hare.

Where is the father rabbit?

He does not live with his family, he does not care about children. Walks by itself. But the hare always guards the rabbits hiding in the grass. Small enemies boldly drives away. He tries to attract the big ones, with whom he cannot cope, so that they run after him, and leads him away from the hares.

And they are not at all helpless. Not blind like rabbits. And they will not be born in a hole, but right on the ground, in a deep hole. As soon as they were born, they immediately know how to run. The mother soon leaves them alone. Maybe only the next day he will come running to them. In their entire life, she happens to feed them with milk only a few times. Yes, more than a week and does not feed. And then they eat all the greens themselves. If a strange hare, not a mother, finds a hare lurking in the grass, then she will definitely feed him, will not run past. But rabbits do not have such an order: the rabbit will not feed other people's children.

Where do wild rabbits live now?

The homeland of rabbits is Europe. Thousands of years ago, wild rabbits were found only in Western Europe. Then wild rabbits were tamed. They were brought to different countries, to different continents. And now they live, resettled by people, not only throughout Western Europe ... Wild rabbits live in America, North and South, and in Australia, in New Zealand and on many islands: the Azores, Canaries, Madeira, Bolearic. Even on the island of Kergulen, not far from Antarctica, where strong cold winds blow all year round, rabbits have taken root and bred.

This is how far the rabbits have wandered from their former homeland - Europe.

Australia is a country far from the homeland of rabbits. But there are now more rabbits in it than in the rest of the world. They eat all the grass in the pastures. Sheep have nothing to eat. The inhabitants of Australia are waging a real war against rabbits. Soldiers, planes, poison gases - everything is used in the fight against rabbits. But rabbits don't give up. True, the "front" moved to the west - to the desert regions of the country. The rabbits were driven back there and fenced off from them with barbed wire. This steel fence stretched not for a hundred or a thousand kilometers, but for many thousands of kilometers!

Australian rabbits have changed some of their habits over a hundred years of living in their new homeland. Rabbits do not give birth in holes, but right on the ground, like hares. Almost completely lost the habit of digging holes. But on the other hand, they learned to climb well ... on trees. Not high, of course, they climb, only bitches on the lower ones.

How do rabbits live

Wild rabbits were brought to our country in the last century. They settled in the south of Ukraine. Somewhere near Kherson or Odessa, in a wasteland, in a forgotten corner of a country park, on the seashore, at the edge of a ravine, you can find rabbit holes. There are always several of them side by side.

Burrows go down and lead to the nest - a cozy home. It is always neatly lined with grass and real rabbit down. The rabbit plucks it on her belly so that the rabbits are softer and warmer.

Rabbits hide in burrows during the day. But also not always. If the place is deaf and safe, the rabbit often naps somewhere under a bush during the day (and this is like a hare!).

Rabbits have large eyes. So big that it’s as if a century is not enough to cover them. So he sleeps with his eyes open. And the sleep of rabbits is “multi-part”: twenty times a day they fall asleep for a short time. Soon they wake up, get up, look around, listen. They lie down again and fall asleep.

At night they feed. It could be called "herding" because grass is almost the only thing a rabbit eats in summer. In winter, of course, he has to gnaw on young branches, roots, seeds and dry grass. When there is a garden nearby, a garden, melons, rabbits cannot be stopped by any fences - they penetrate.

How can a mother rabbit protect her children?

Yes, almost nothing. If she hears that some dangerous enemy is approaching the hole, she will jump out of the dungeon. She stomps on the ground with her hind legs so loudly - she wants the predator to chase her and not touch her rabbits. And those in the hole lurk and, one might say, do not breathe. The rabbit will lead the enemy behind her and, if she is not caught, will soon return to the hole in a roundabout way. Again, peace reigns in the long-eared family.

Rabbit breeds

For a long time already people have tamed rabbits and breed their domestic descendants. And different breeds were bred - only sixty.

The largest rabbit is the flandre, or Belgian giant. It is almost a meter long from nose to tail. Weighs up to nine kilograms! The ears are so long that the rabbit cannot hold them upright - so from the head down and spread along the ground. These rabbits are different in color: gray, blue, red, black and white.

The smallest rabbit is madeleine. It weighs ten times less than the Belgian giant.

The most shaggy - angora. He has a funny look - a fluffy white lump. He will raise his ears - and at their ends there are lush tassels! All overgrown with long hair. Up to 80 centimeters each "curl"! Angora rabbits are not only white, but also black, gray, brown.

The most beautiful rabbit ... Well, there is a wide choice for every taste.

The Russians fell in love with, for example, the ermine rabbit. It has great coloration! All white as snow, and the ears, legs, end of the muzzle and tail are black.

The Japanese, on the other hand, brought out such a beautiful rabbit: it has spots of three colors on its body - white, yellow, black. One half of the head is black and the other half is yellow. So are the ears, one black, the other yellow.

The German spotted rabbit is similar to the Russian ermine. White, and the ears, "glasses" around the eyes, nose and stripe along the back are black.

Viennese blue rabbits, champagne, chinchilla, havanna are good in color.

How to feed rabbits

If the rabbit is very small, a month or two from birth, then semolina porridge is the best food for him. Or white bread soaked in milk. And when the rabbit is four months old, you need to feed him like adult rabbits.

Usually rabbits sleep or doze during the day, and wake up at night. Therefore, at night they need to be given more food than during the day. Oatmeal, boiled potatoes, bran, boiled flour. And during the day, their menu should have green fodder: grass, carrots, beets, and hay sprinkled with salt and flour is also possible.

Rabbits love these herbs: dandelion leaves, plantain, wormwood, dill, sage, mint, cumin, juniper. Parsley and pepper increase their appetite. They also willingly eat horse sorrel, wild chicory, bindweed, clover, shoots of peas and beans.

And here's something to remember: never feed rabbits grass that is damp from dew or rain, or mowed in a swamp! It will make their stomachs ache.

Rabbits are peaceful, harmless animals, they never bite, and they do not have sharp claws like a cat. Even the smallest children can play with rabbits.

Once upon a time there was a hedgehog

"Top-top-top!" - heard in the silence of the night.

Who dared to disturb the pre-dawn peace?

The grasshoppers were silent. The frogs stopped croaking. The nightingale is not heard.

And then suddenly: "Top-top-top!" - someone's unhurried and fearless steps.

The fox pricked up its ears, wagged its tail, and hid in the bushes. The wolf turned his ear and continued on his way. The owl fluttered silently and, like a black shadow, darted away into the forest. The beetle, spreading its wings, buzzes, stuck in the grass.

For a moment, the verse "top-top-top". And now the beetle crunches in the mouth of the hedgehog-stomper.

And again, parting the dewy grasses with its nose, the night stomper wanders somewhere.

It's not hard to catch up with him. It immediately curls up into a ball. Touch it - instantly prick! All studded with sharp needles.

Until autumn, hedgehogs roam at night through forests, fields and gardens, and winter will come - somewhere under the root of a tree, in a bush, a hole, covered with fallen leaves, they sleep until spring, like bears in dens.

In the spring, the hedgehog builds a cozy nest and brings hedgehogs into them: two or three, or even ten! This happens at any warm time of the year: in May, and in July, and in September, you can find newborn hedgehogs in the forest.

Did you know that hares live everywhere in nature. You will not meet them only in Antarctica and Australia. In total, they are distinguished by about 30 species, but in Russia only the stomp hare, Manchurian hare, hare and hare are common. The last two species are the most famous hares in the nature of our country.

Brown hare (Lepus europaeus)

Rusaki is a typical herbivore, willingly eating a variety of cereals, buckwheat, sunflower, chicory, alfalfa, clover, colza and dandelions. At night, in search of food, wanting to saturate his stomach, the hare travels up to several kilometers, while testing its long legs for strength.

Settling on agricultural land, these animals can greatly harm the harvest of vegetable gardens, orchards and winter crops, actively eating human-grown cereals and melons, vegetables, and fruits. The neighborhood of the Rusaks can be so unpleasant for the civilization of people that it often becomes a real disaster.

And in some countries, for example, in Australia, hare are even declared to be a serious danger, pests. In winter, in the absence of proper nutrition, the hare is content with gnawing the bark, often bringing not only shrubs, but even large trees to a disastrous state.

These animals prefer to feast on broom, hazel, oak or maple, while hare hares usually choose aspen or willow for their meals (and this is another difference between these bright representatives of the genus of hares).

Tearing the snow with their paws, the hares diligently dig out plant food and tree seeds from under it. And the fruits of their efforts can often be used by other animals, for example, partridges, which are not able to clear the snow on their own.

In the spring, the hare actively eat young shoots of plants, their leaves and stems, often damaging the roots of shrubs and trees that are just starting to grow, and in summer they eat their seeds.

Habits and role in human life

hare habits

The habits of the hare characterize them as sedentary animals living in a certain territory. They prefer not to leave the inhabited area if there is a sufficient amount of food in this place. In other regions, hares move daily in search of food, overcoming tens of kilometers. Sometimes there are seasonal migrations towards settlements and less snowy ones towards the edges.

The activity of the hares begins at dusk and at night, and in the first part of the night and just before the onset of the morning. During the day, they can only be activated during the rut (mating).

In the summer, the hare bed looks like a shallow hole hidden from prying eyes under a bush. At the same time, hare do not build permanent minks. For rest, they dig in temporary huts - daytime minks that save animals from the annoying heat. As a resting place, hares can use other people's holes - badger or fox.

Brown hares run faster than white hares, reaching speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour, while tracing with long jumps, confusing the tracks. They are good swimmers. The voice of the hares cannot be heard only in danger of being caught or injured, animals can make piercing sounds.

The female hare calls to her hares with a quiet cry, and the male, when alarmed, only makes sounds with clicking teeth. As communication between themselves, they often use the paws, the sound of which resembles a drumming.

In the spring, hare hare is located on high surfaces warmed by the sun, and in winter, hares move to deep snow, digging holes up to two meters long. Often in the fall, animals make mats in haystacks.

Hare - description, characteristics, appearance. What does a hare look like?

hare body slender, slightly laterally compressed, its length in some species reaches 68-70 cm. The weight of a hare can exceed 7 kg. A characteristic feature of the hare is wedge-shaped ears, reaching a length of 9 to 15 cm. Thanks to the ears, the hearing of the hare is much better developed than the sense of smell and vision. The hind limbs of these mammals have long feet and are more developed than the front ones. In the event of a threat, the speed of a hare can reach 80 km / h. And the ability to suddenly change the direction of running and jump sharply to the side allows these animals to get rid of the pursuit of enemies: a wolf, a fox, an owl, etc. Hares run well up the slopes, but you have to go down head over heels.

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hare coloring

hare color depends on the season. In summer, the fur of the animal has a reddish-gray, brown or brown tint. Due to the dark color of the undercoat, the color is uneven with large and small "spots". The fur on the belly is white. Hares change color in winter, their fur brightens, but only the white hare becomes completely snow-white. The tips of the ears of all members of the genus remain black all year round.

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What is the difference between a wild and domestic rabbit and a hare: comparison, difference, difference, explanation for children

hare and rabbit with marked external differences

All domestic rabbit species are descended from the wild hare. The salient features are:

• Ear and paw size. They are more in hares.
• Habitat. Hares do not dig holes, but live on the surface of the earth. Rabbits, on the contrary, like to hide in tunnels dug with their paws.
• The weight. Hares reach 7 kg, and rabbits - 10. At the same time, the average weight of a white hare is 3-5.5 kg, a hare - 4-7 kg, a domestic rabbit - up to 10 kg, a wild one - 1.6-2.5 kg.
• Sociality. Hares prefer the life of hermits, and rabbits live in packs.
• The running speed is definitely higher in hares.
• Behavior in the face of danger. Hares always run away, and rabbits often freeze in place.
• A change in coat color is present in hares. In the snowy season they are white, in the rest of the year they are gray. Rabbits after molting remain the same color.
• Genetics. Hares have 24 pairs of chromosomes, rabbits have 22. For this reason, they do not interbreed, since there will be no offspring from such “marriages”.
• The mating season for rabbits is all year round. Hares, on the other hand, are more conservative, breeding only in certain months, taking into account the climate of residence.
• newborn offspring. Rabbits are immediately ready to survive in this world, they have wool, hearing and vision, as well as the ability to digest adult food as early as 5 days after birth. Rabbits need mother's care for 25 days after birth. They have no fur, no vision, no hearing. For the first 4 weeks of life, they eat and digest only mother's milk.
• duration of pregnancy. It is longer in hares. A hare will give birth in 45 days, a rabbit in 32.
• Parental feelings are stronger in rabbits. They selflessly care only for their offspring. Attempts to put other people's rabbits on them end in failure. The rabbit either beats them up or eats them. The hare calmly leaves newborn babies for a day or more. However, someone else's lactating representative, who happened to be next to them, will easily feed them.

To make it clear to the child the difference between rabbits and hares, say that the former are able to live with a person, while the latter are not. Rabbits are more social, hares prefer loneliness.

Appearance

If we take a general description of a hare (mammal, hare family), then it should be noted that all species have similar features:

• long ears;
• underdeveloped clavicles;
• long and strong hind legs;
• short fluffy tail.

Females are larger than males, the size of animals ranges from 25 to 74 cm, and the weight reaches 10 kg.

Thanks to its long hind legs, this animal is able to run fast and jump. The running speed of a hare, for example, can reach 70 km / h.

Moult

These animals shed twice a year, in autumn and spring. The beginning and term of molting are associated with external conditions. Molting begins with changes in the length of daylight hours, and its duration is determined by air temperature.

Spring molt in most species begins in late winter - early spring and lasts an average of 75-80 days. The animal begins to molt from the head to the lower limbs.

Autumn molting begins, on the contrary, from the back of the body and passes to the head. It usually begins in September, and the molt ends by the end of November. Winter fur grows thicker and lush, it protects the animal from the cold.

General description of the hare. What does a wild hare look like? Origin

Fossil remains of mammals that lived 60 million years ago were found on the territory of modern Mongolia. Their study gives paleontologists reason to believe that the ancestors of the modern hare were representatives of the class of vertebrates (myxodonts). It is assumed that this ancient animal weighed no more than 150 grams, had the size of a modern hamster, fed its young with milk and moved on the ground by jumping.

The word "hare" comes from a combination of two ancient Arabic words, which are translated as "nibble" and "fang".

In the people, this forest animal is sometimes called "oblique". This is due to the special structure of the skull, on which the eyes are located on opposite sides. This natural structure allows the hare to control the surrounding area without turning his head. Therefore, it is almost impossible for a hunter or a forest predator to approach an animal imperceptibly.

Forest hares mainly feed on grass and various vegetables. Wandering to personal plots, they prefer cabbage. Sometimes they gnaw on the bark of trees and this can cause significant damage to forest lands. If household plots are located near the forest where hares live, then the owners, in order to preserve fruit trees, often wrap the trunks with thick cardboard.

A rodent is a mammalian animal with a slightly elongated body 70-75 centimeters long. His most developed organ is hearing. Thanks to the long ears, which act as locators, the hare can pick up the sounds of danger. Poorly developed vision (the rodent sees well only at dusk) is compensated by the sense of smell.

The hare can run at speeds of more than 80 kilometers per hour, escaping from a predator, thanks to the long foot of its hind limbs. At the same time, the animal is able to abruptly change direction and make large jumps to the side.

Typically, a predator determines the location of its prey by the smell that is secreted by the sweat glands of the prey. In a hare, sweat-producing cells are located on the sole of the paw. Due to this natural feature, it is almost impossible for a predator or a hunting dog to determine the place of a hare lying on the ground.

In lagomorphs, the stomach is divided into two parts. One part performs the function of food fermentation (fermentation), and the other is designed to digest it.

The dental system is significantly different from that of other rodents. It has two pairs of wide and sharp incisors (with which animals chew food), and behind them are two small, rod-like ones. This puts the hares apart among the "relatives". Characteristically, the jaws have 5-6 molars, each of which consists of two enamel plates.

The color of rabbit fur depends on the season. In summer, the rodent's coat is usually dark brown. In winter, the fur changes its color and becomes light (only the hare changes its brown color to completely white at this time). The fur of the part of the body between the chest and legs (belly) in a rodent is always white. The tips of the ears never change color from birth and always remain black.

Reproduction and offspring

Depending on their habitat, hares produce offspring from one to four times a year. Species living in the North manage to breed only one brood of rabbits during the summer, while southern species can breed much more often. Their first rut begins at the end of winter or at the beginning of spring.

At the same time, there are often fights between males competing for the attention of the same hare: rivals jump on each other, trying to push the enemy back, beat him with their hind legs, and sometimes, rising to their full height, box with their front ones. The winner, who has achieved the attention of the female, begins to jump around her, as if inviting her to run a race with him.

At the same time, a hare couple is sometimes so carried away by mutual courtship of each other that they do not notice anything around, even the approach of predators. Pregnancy in rabbits lasts from 26 to 55 days, after which several cubs are born, the number of which varies depending on the species and habitat conditions. Usually, the female gives birth to from 1 to 11 babies.

It is interesting! In species of hares living in burrows or other natural shelters, offspring are born hairless or covered with fur, but blind, while in hares living on the surface of the earth, females give birth to hairy and sighted cubs.

The latter, at birth, are noticeably superior in growth and development to their newborn "relatives" who were born in holes: they can literally move and hide in the grass in the very first hours of their lives. Depending on the time of the birth of the cubs, they are called differently.

So, hares from the first litter are called nastoviks, those born in the summer - herbalists or flyers, and those that were born closer to autumn - deciduous. Previously, it was believed that a hare is a bad mother and that she does not care about her cubs at all: she will feed them with milk immediately after giving birth and run away.

True, at the same time, the hares do not die of hunger at all: they are fed by other hares who are nearby. But at present, not all zoologists share this opinion: some scientists believe that the mother hare does not abandon her cubs, but is constantly near them. True, in the event of a threat, she will not protect them, but will prefer to flee. At first, the female feeds her rabbits with milk, and later they completely switch to plant foods. These animals, depending on their species, reach sexual maturity at the age of ten weeks to two years.

In appearance, the rabbit looks just like a hare. He has the same long ears and hind legs, the same short tail-flower, the same muzzle. But the habits of a rabbit are not similar to a hare. Oh how different! Rabbits are born in a hole, on a bed of grass and fluff (for now I'm talking only about wild rabbits - domestic rabbits will be born in cages). And so, the rabbits were born. Quite small. Hairless - without hair, blind, deaf. They barely crawl. In about two weeks, their eyes will only open. The mother rabbit almost never leaves her children. She will run, eat some leaves and again hurries to the hole to her babies. When he feeds them with milk, he sits, and does not lie, like a hare.

Where is the father rabbit? He does not live with his family, he does not care about children. Walks by itself. But the hare always guards the rabbits hiding in the grass. Small enemies boldly drives away. He tries to attract the big ones, with whom he cannot cope, so that they run after him, and leads him away from the hares. And they are not at all helpless. Not blind like rabbits. And they will not be born in a hole, but right on the ground, in a deep hole. As soon as they were born, they immediately know how to run. The mother soon leaves them alone. Maybe only the next day he will come running to them. In their entire life, she happens to feed them with milk only a few times. Yes, more than a week and does not feed. And then they eat all the greens themselves. If a strange hare, not a mother, finds a hare lurking in the grass, then she will definitely feed him, will not run past. But rabbits do not have such an order: the rabbit will not feed other people's children. ...