Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Arc­tic hare, Lepus arcti­cus, are found in the north­ern­most re­gions of Green­land, the Arc­tic Is­lands and Canada, in­clud­ing Ellesmere Is­land and fur­ther south in New­found­land and Labrador. (Best and Henry, 1994)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

Arc­tic hare, which are well adapted to cold weather and frozen pre­cip­i­ta­tion, are found in moun­tain­ous tun­dras, rocky plateaus and tree­less coasts. In these lo­ca­tions, the av­er­age daily tem­per­a­ture from March to No­vem­ber is -26.9 de­grees Cel­sius, and av­er­age snow­fall is 37.5 cm. Arc­tic hare can be found at el­e­va­tions be­tween 0 and 900 m. (Best and Henry, 1994; Small, et al., 1991)

• Habitat Regions
• polar
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• tundra
• mountains

• Aquatic Biomes
• coastal

• Range elevation

  0 to 900 m

  0.00 to 2952.76 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Arc­tic hare have large, heav­ily padded feet with strong front and hind claws and are larger than other species of hare. An adult ranges from 3 to 5 kg in mass and from 480 to 600 mm in length. On av­er­age, they mea­sure 558 mm in length. Year-round, Arc­tic hare have thick, gray fur on their chest and un­der­belly. How­ever, the color of the rest of their coat changes sea­son­ally. Dur­ing the win­ter sea­son, their coat is long, thick, soft and white and their ears are black-tipped. Through­out the sum­mer, their coat molts to a brown­ish-gray or gray-blue color. Their face and feet are the first to molt, fol­lowed by the ears, shoul­ders, legs, and back­side. Fe­males un­dergo this change ear­lier than males. At birth, Arc­tic hare are gray and weigh an av­er­age of 105 g. Their fur changes to white dur­ing their first win­ter, and the tips of their ears be­come grayer. Dur­ing the sum­mer months, the fur of young Arc­tic hare con­tains more black than the fur of adults. (Best and Henry, 1994; How­ell, 1936)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range mass

  3 to 5 kg

  6.61 to 11.01 lb

• Range length

  480 to 600 mm

  18.90 to 23.62 in

• Average length

  558 mm

  21.97 in

• Average basal metabolic rate

  0.36 cm3.O2/g/hr

Re­pro­duc­tion

Arc­tic hare find a new mate dur­ing each breed­ing sea­son. Males at­tract fe­males by phys­i­cal con­tact, such as scratch­ing and lick­ing and a male fol­lows the fe­male until mat­ing oc­curs. Males can be fairly ag­gres­sive dur­ing cop­u­la­tion and may bite a fe­male's neck, draw­ing blood. Until off­spring are born, a mat­ing pair re­mains to­gether, often set­tling away from other hares. Upon birth, males typ­i­cally leave their part­ner to find an­other mate. (Best and Henry, 1994; Hearn, et al., 1987; Swi­hart, 1984)

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous)

Arc­tic hare typ­i­cal mate in April or May. Fe­males have, on av­er­age, 1 lit­ter per year but can have 2 lit­ters. Lit­ters range in size from 2 to 8 off­spring, un­like other mem­bers of the genus g. Lepus, of which the lit­ters range from 1 to 4 off­spring. The ges­ta­tion pe­riod of Arc­tic hare is ap­prox­i­mately 50 days, and off­spring are usu­ally born in May or June. Arc­tic hare weigh on av­er­age 105 g at birth. Ju­ve­niles be­come mostly in­de­pen­dent after 2 to 3 weeks, but re­main close to their mother until wean­ing oc­curs at 8 or 9 weeks after birth. Arc­tic hares reach sex­u­ally ma­tu­rity at ap­prox­i­mately 315 days of age, mean­ing hares are able to breed the spring di­rectly fol­low­ing their birth. (Best and Henry, 1994; Swi­hart, 1984)

• Key Reproductive Features
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual

• Breeding interval

  Arctic hare typically breed once a year but may breed twice in one season.

• Breeding season

  The breeding season of Arctic hare spans April to September.

• Range number of offspring

  2 to 8

• Average number of offspring

  5.8

• Average gestation period

  50 days

• Range weaning age

  8 to 9 weeks

• Range time to independence

  2 to 3 weeks

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  315 days

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  315 days

Male Arc­tic hare may re­main near the nest for a few days after birth of their off­spring but are oth­er­wise ab­sent. For the first 2 to 3 days after giv­ing birth, fe­males do not leave sight of her off­spring so as to pro­tect and de­fend the nest. After 3 days, young Arc­tic hare are able to pro­tect them­selves by hid­ing or re­main­ing very still. Fe­males nurse their young every 18 to 20 hours, and young are weaned at 8 to 9 weeks of age. As ju­ve­niles ma­ture, they spend a de­creas­ing amount of time with their mother. (Best and Henry, 1994; Swi­hart, 1984)

• Parental Investment
• female parental care
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-independence
  • protecting
    • female
• post-independence association with parents

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Lit­tle in­for­ma­tion is avail­able re­gard­ing the longevity of Arc­tic hare, though anec­do­tal ev­i­dence sug­gests they live 3 to 5 years. Arc­tic hare do not sur­vive well in cap­tiv­ity. ("Arc­tic Hare", 2009; Best and Henry, 1994)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  1.5 (high) years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  3 to 5 years

Be­hav­ior

Al­though on oc­ca­sion Arc­tic hare in­ter­act with other mem­bers of the species and may form large groups, they are gen­er­ally soli­tary out­side of breed­ing sea­son. They are ter­ri­colous and motile and move around by hop­ping and jump­ing. When threat­ened, they stand up on their hind legs, keep­ing a fore­limb tucked in close to their body. They have the abil­ity to hop away in this stance, which cre­ates tracks in the snow that ap­pear to have been made by a three-legged an­i­mal. Arc­tic hare are good swim­mers and run very fast, at­tain­ing speeds up to 64 km/h. They bur­row un­der­ground and are able to dig through snow to find food. (Best and Henry, 1994; Hearn, et al., 1987; Swi­hart, 1984)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• fossorial
• saltatorial
• nocturnal
• motile
• solitary

• Range territory size

  520,000 to 1,550,000 m^2

Home Range

Be­cause Arc­tic hare cover wider dis­tances to find po­ten­tial mates dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, the home range of Arc­tic hare is larger dur­ing warmer spring and sum­mer months (March to April) than dur­ing win­ter months. The home range of males is 116 to 155 ha, which is con­sid­er­ably larger than the home range for fe­males, which is gen­er­ally 52 to 69 ha. (Best and Henry, 1994; Hearn, et al., 1987; Swi­hart, 1984)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Arc­tic hares are noc­tur­nal, al­though dur­ing the win­ter months, they rest more spo­rad­i­cally through­out the day. Arc­tic hare are gen­er­ally soli­tary out­side of mat­ing sea­son, but they have been known to gather in groups of 100 or more. While hare in these groups rest, one in­di­vid­ual re­mains awake to guard the herd. As pairs of Arc­tic hare form dur­ing mat­ing sea­son, large groups are much less com­mon. Arc­tic hares com­mu­ni­cate with each other via snap­ping, box­ing, scratch­ing, and lay­ing their ears back. Male and fe­male arc­tic hares show af­fec­tion by lick­ing or scratch­ing. (Best and Henry, 1994; Klein and Bay, 1994)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• chemical

Food Habits

Arc­tic hares feed pri­mar­ily on woody plants such as sax­ifrage, crow­berry, and dwarf wil­low. Wil­low con­sti­tutes 95% of their diet in every sea­son. Dur­ing the sum­mer, their diet is more di­verse but still pri­mar­ily con­sists of wil­low, dryas and grasses. Arc­tic hare can eat a wide va­ri­ety of other food sources, in­clud­ing lichens and mosses, blooms, leaves, twigs and roots, moun­tain sor­rel and macroal­gae (sea­weed). On oc­ca­sion, Arc­tic hare eat meat, in­clud­ing fish and the stom­ach con­tents of evis­cer­ated cari­bou. Arc­tic hare eat snow to ob­tain water. (Best and Henry, 1994; How­ell, 1936)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • folivore

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• roots and tubers
• wood, bark, or stems
• fruit
• flowers
• bryophytes
• lichens
• macroalgae

Pre­da­tion

Arc­tic hare are well adapted to avoid preda­tors. Dur­ing the win­ter, their white fur blends in with snow and acts as cam­ou­flage. Dur­ing the spring and sum­mer, their fur is a brown­ish-gray, which also blends in with the ground and sur­round­ing habi­tat. A few days after birth, young Arc­tic hare are able to de­fend them­selves by hid­ing or re­main­ing mo­tion­less. As they ma­ture, they be­come in­cred­i­bly agile and can reach speeds of 64 km/h, al­low­ing them to out­run preda­tors. Young arc­tic hare are more likely to fall prey than adults. Preda­tors of Arc­tic hare in­clude Arc­tic foxes, red foxes, gray wolves, Canada lynx, er­mines, snowy owls, gyr­fal­cons, and rough-legged hawks. Hu­mans also cap­ture Arc­tic hare for food and ma­te­ri­als. (Best and Henry, 1994; Fitzger­ald and Keith, 1990; Small, et al., 1991)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • Arctic fox Vulpes lagopus
  • red fox Vulpes vulpes
  • gray wolf Canis lupus
  • Canada lynx Lynx canadensis
  • ermine Mustela erminea
  • snowy owl Bubo scandiacus
  • gyrfalcon Falco rusticolus
  • rough-legged hawk Buteo lagopus
  • humans Homo sapiens

Ecosys­tem Roles

Arc­tic hare dis­perse seeds, which they eat. They also com­pete for food re­sources with two other her­bi­vores in their ge­o­graphic range, muskoxen and cari­bou, which eat many of the same things. There are four known groups of par­a­sites that use Arc­tic hares as a host. These par­a­sites are: pro­to­zoans, in­clud­ing Eime­ria ex­igua, E. magna, E. per­forans, and E. sculpta; ne­ma­todes, in­clud­ing Fi­laria and Oxyuris am­bigua; lice, in­clud­ing Haemodip­sus lyri­o­cephalus and H. se­toni; and most com­monly fleas, in­clud­ing Ho­plop­syl­lus glacialis, Eu­ho­plop­syl­lus glacialis, and Megaboth­ris groen­landi­cus. (Best and Henry, 1994)

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Arc­tic hare are a source of both cloth­ing and food for the na­tive peo­ple of the Arc­tic. Es­ki­mos use the ab­sorbent fur to make gloves and hats, ban­dages and fem­i­nine sup­plies. The skin is used for blan­kets, stock­ings, and pants, al­though it is thin and tears eas­ily. Es­ki­mos uti­lize pelts to make tow­els, and in some cases, to plug rifle bar­rels. Arc­tic hare are also a food source to Es­ki­mos, who uti­lize every part of the an­i­mal ex­cept the in­testines. The white flesh is usu­ally lean and full-fla­vored, though ad­di­tional fat is often added to pro­vide more fla­vor. The qual­ity and taste of the flesh varies with age, sex, and sea­son. Dur­ing mat­ing sea­son, for ex­am­ple, males are nearly ined­i­ble. Arc­tic hare are quite thin dur­ing the win­ter, pro­vid­ing less meat. The ear car­ti­lage is con­sid­ered a del­i­cacy. Es­ki­mos often break the hind leg bones and suck out the bone mar­row. They may also chew the milk glands and con­sume the milk within as a rem­edy for nau­sea. (Best and Henry, 1994)

• Positive Impacts
• food
• body parts are source of valuable material
• source of medicine or drug

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse ef­fects of Arc­tic hare on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Arc­tic hare are con­sid­ered to be at low risk and of least con­cern by the IUCN Red List.

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Brooke Bet­zler (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Karen Pow­ers (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Gail Mc­Cormick (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Ref­er­ences

2009. "AnAge Data­base" (On-line). Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 11, 2010 at http://​genomics.​senescence.​info/​species/​query.​php?​search=lepus.

2009. "Arc­tic Hare" (On-line). Polar Con­ser­va­tion Or­gan­i­sa­tion. Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 30, 2010 at http://​www.​polarconservation.​org/​education/​arctic-animals/​arctic-mammals/​lagomorphs/​arctic-hare.

Angerbjörn, A. 2004. Hares & Rab­bits: Lep­ori­dae.. Pp. 505-516 in Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia, Vol. 16, 2 Edi­tion. Farm­ing­ton Hills, MI: Thomas Gale.

Barta, R. 1992. De­mo­graphic re­sponses of Arc­tic hares Lepus arcti­cus placed on two pre­dom­i­nantly forested is­lands in New­found­land. Ecog­ra­phy, 15/2: 161-165.

Best, T., T. Henry. 1994. Lepus arcti­cus. Mam­malian Species, 457: 1-9.

Fitzger­ald, S., L. Keith. 1990. In­tra- and in­ter-spe­cific dom­i­nance re­la­tion­ships among arc­tic and snow­shoe hares. Cana­dian Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 68/3: 457-464.

Gib­son, K. 1999. Mam­malian So­cial Learn­ing: Com­par­a­tive and Eco­log­i­cal Per­spec­tives. Cam­bridge, United King­dom: Cam­bridge Uni­ver­sity Press.

Glazier, D., S. Eck­ert. 2002. Com­pet­i­tive abil­ity, body size and ge­o­graph­i­cal range size in small mam­mals. Jour­nal of Bio­geog­ra­phy, 29/1: 81-92.

Gray, D. 1993. Be­hav­ioural adap­ta­tions to Arc­tic win­ter: shel­ter seek­ing by Arc­tic hare (Lepus arcti­cus). Arc­tic, 46/4: 340-453.

Hearn, B., L. Keith, O. Rongstad. 1987. De­mog­ra­phy and ecol­ogy of the Arc­tic hare (Lepus arcti­cus) in south­west­ern New­found­land. Cana­dian Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 65/4: 852-861.

How­ell, A. 1936. A re­vi­sion of the Amer­i­can Arc­tic hares. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 17/4: 315-337.

Klein, D., C. Bay. 1994. Re­source par­ti­tion­ing by mam­malian her­bi­vores in the high Arc­tic. Oe­colo­gia, 97/4: 439-450.

McNab, B. 1980. Food habits, en­er­get­ics, and the pop­u­la­tion bi­ol­ogy of mam­mals. The Amer­i­can Nat­u­ral­ist, 116/1: 106-124.

Pe­ter­son, U. 1998. Food habits of Arc­tic wolves in Green­land. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 79/1: 236-244.

Small, R., L. Keith, R. Barta. 1991. Dis­per­sion of in­tro­duced arc­tic hares (Lepus arcti­cus) on is­lands off New­found­land's south coast.. Cana­dian Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 69/10: 2618-2623.

Smith, A. 2004. Lago­mor­pha (Pikas, rab­bits, and hares).. Pp. 479-489 in Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia, Vol. 16, 2 Edi­tion. Farm­ing­ton Hills, MI: Thomas Gale.

Swi­hart, R. 1984. Body size, breed­ing sea­son length, and life his­tory tac­tics of lago­morphs. Oikos, 43/3: 282-290.